


Caboodle of Chaos

by Hedgi



Series: Metakitties [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU of season two with better life choices, AU-kittens, And Friendship, Gen, Kittens: apply directly to the angst, and with kittens, but mostly just kittens, but some are going out the window via kittens, half crack half plot, more tags added as the plot demands, probably polyamory, some canon things still happen, the kittens collectively screw up canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-07-11 02:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7021570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedgi/pseuds/Hedgi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In season two of Flash, Barry faces loss, love triangles, and his strongest enemy yet.</p><p>In season two of Metakitties, Canon goes a bit fuzzy...<br/>Three dozen superpowered kitties and team Flash will see to that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

“You are at least a year old and a superkitty, you should know by now, that is not your breakfast,” Joe waved a spoon at a fluffy grey and white cat, who had her face buried in a bowl on the kitchen table. “Barry, your breakfast just became catfood.”

“Mew.” Nyoom looked up, blinked, and went back to the bowl of oatmeal, purring as she lapped up the sweetened milk.

There was no response from upstairs, where Barry Allen was presumably still sleeping. Joe shrugged. “Fine. It’s all yours, Nyoom. He can get lectured by Caitlin for not eating, no skin off my back.”

 

Barry rushed in the front door a minute later, his clothing rumbled and a square imprint on his cheek. “Sorry, fell asleep at STAR--Nyoom! No! That’s mine!”

Nyoom looked up again, let out a ‘mrt’ and went back to eating. Barry grumbled, but checked the pot on the stove. There was plenty left, at least.

“Joooooe,” Barry mock whined as he scooted Nyoom from the table.

“She was on time to breakfast, and that’s saying something for a cat.” Joe  said in defense before Barry could mutter about him letting his breakfast get eaten. “Besides, I can’t control you or Iris, what am I supposed to do about a cat that’s faster than you?”

This was true. When she’d finally grown into her yearling body, her long legs more of an asset, Nyoom could not only run faster than Barry, but generally for a longer time, assuming she’d eaten enough. Caitlin had been fascinated by it, Cisco had just started working on a joke costume made from the scraps left over whenever Barry damaged a Flash suit beyond repair. As far as Barry knew, he hadn’t finished, but they’d had a busy enough summer.

 

Martine Stein and Ronnie had, with help from Ginger the pyromaniac cat, “disposed” of the rather mangled body of Eobard Thawne. Harrison Wells was listed as one of the six casualties of the Singularity, a number that would have been far higher without the Flash.

(“Or without you, Fuzz,” Cisco had told her, chopping steak for her dinner. She had earned a fancy meal every night for as long as she lived, everyone had decided, and her bowling ball of a belly was proof that she agreed.) There had been some looting in the aftermath, but when Barry returned to the streets a the next day, it had tapered off, and things had gone back to some semblance of normal.

 

Well, as normal as things could be, now that Cisco’d joined Joe’s Metahuman task-force as a consultant, and CSI Sava had given up trying to keep cats out of the CCPD. That, plus all the chaos that came from trying to actually run STAR labs again.

Caitlin and Cisco had dug around, Barry helping where he could, and uncloved that while Gideon was gone, the bank account the AI had started was still around--the JL Gideon fund still active, though now without a Gideon to run it. There was a long string of zeros, though, and the instructions were for the money to be used to help victims of metahuman activity. The first check they cut was to cover costs for those injured in the Singularity, and Cisco conferred with the local hospitals, arguing with them in three languages at times, to get something automated set up for future disasters. All the while, Fuzzwhump purred at him, chewing on his hoodie’s ragged cuff, or one his shoe laces.

 

Letters from some lawyer piled up--Barry wanted to burn them, but Ginger was remarkably unhelpful with that, having been trained by Martin and Clarissa to not destroy important documents. The next best thing was ignoring them. Things eased into a new normal, full of red tape--getting Ronnie un-declared dead was surprisingly less difficult than expected, and rather than apartment hunt, Ronnie and Caitlin had simply moved in with the Steins after a double honeymoon to Tahiti and to Italy--in the hunt for Gideon, they’d found more than one secret bank account, and since it was technically in Caitlin’s name as well as Barry and Cisco’s….all in all, Barry had expected a lot more bureaucracy BS, but he wasn’t going to complain. And if this normal had more cats and fewer time traveling murderers, then really, what was there to complain about? It was worth missing a bowl of oatmeal once in awhile.

 

~*~ ** ~

Even without the constant barrage of metahuman threats--things had been suspiciously calm the last month, probably owing to Firestorm’s appearance, and possibly to the cats, there were still crimes to be solved. Before breakfast was even finished, Joe’s phone rang, and he and Barry headed for the door, leaving Nyoom to finish the rest of her breakfast, Barry’s, and Joe’s. She purred, cleaning her paws delicately, then raced from the house to chase the very fat squirrels away from her yard. That job done, she took off, white static sparking in her fur, back towards STAR. She had Responsibilities, after all. Someone had to make sure that all the papers got knocked onto the floor, and any of Sco’s leftovers got eaten. It was a tough job, but someone had doo. Nyoom zipped down the streets, not even stopping to preen when she noticed people staring at where she had been.

The others were glad to see her, greeting her with waving tails and nose touches. Frieda put a large reddish paw on her back and held her in place while she licked, cleaning the last of the oatmeal from Nyoom’s long fur, while Faulkner dozed at his computer, tail twapping against the “A” key. Few of the others were about--Sue and Georgia, along with Schrodi were off again, trying to find the missing humans from the boxes downstairs. They’d been gone for ages now, but still. Scrap and Fuzz and Ginger were with their humans, as were Goldie and Bear. Lucy popped out of a closet, barreled into Nyoom with a high nonsense noise learned from humans, and Nyoom battled back, pinning the smaller kitten easily and licking her ear, before dashing off again, zipping between Caitlin’s legs. The woman squeaked in surprise.

“Nyoom, when did you get here?” Really, they needed to up the security, not to keep the kitties out, but to warn everyone who was “home” and who was not. She’d mention it to Cisco later.

 

~

“Ok, but it’s the Flash Day celebration, so why can’t I just send Nyoom?” Barry muttered to Joe, crouching at the crime scene.

“Send a cat? That’s funny. We both know damn well that cat doesn’t go anywhere she doesn’t want to. You can bring her, but avoiding this--they just want to say thank you. To all of you.”

“Firestorm doesn’t have to deal with this.”  
Joe laughed. “Give it six months and he will. You just get more publicity. Bar, I do think it’s a good idea.”

“...I’m not giving a speech.” Barry looked back at the body he was supposed to have been checking. “ Victim’s Al Rothstein--funny, I thought he was listened as one of the victims of the particle accelerator? Could be something there. Petechiae on his face and the whites of his eyes, and this bruising around his neck…”

“Strangled then? Damn. whoever did it must be huge.”

Barry nodded.

“We sure it’s not our Curious George?”

Barry shrugged. “Ever since Apricot vanished with him, Grodd hasn’t been so much as spotted, much less robbing trucks or going on rampages. Nah, the bruising’s not quite right for a Gorilla anyway. Had to have been a meta.”

“Take your samples for STAR, too, then, be--”

“Quick about it?” Barry quirked a grin.

“Yeah, you keep those puns up, I’m really gonna give your breakfast to your cat.” Joe laughed. “ go on. At least show up at the Rally, ok? No speech, just smile and wave and, I dunno, maybe run up the side of something.”

~~*~~ ** ~~

Cisco checked the computer, glancing at the large stack of parts he’d ordered, a rolled up blueprint sheet on top. Though technically he had a desk near Joe’s, he still prefered to work at STAR Labs. It was, after all, home, in a way that the police station just wasn’t. He’d finished the last touches on the Iron Heights metahuman cells a week and a half prior, and was moving on to another project, a temporary measure that could incapacitate a metahuman criminal without lasting damage. He also had another project going, and he waited fir the computer to load. When it did, he grinned.

“Another 500 followers, Fuzz,” he told the fluffy cat currently sniffing at the pile of tools and odds and ends he’d be using to make the first prototype Boot. The social media account he’d created under the name “Metakitties” had exploded in popularity after Iris’s blog confirmed the existence of “Flashcat,” though he was careful never to include faces, and keep the videos as close to normal as possible--nothing that he couldn’t later “reveal” was just clever camera work.  Fuzzwhump blinked pale eyes at him, and let out a trilling purr before going back to her investigation.

Cisco gave her a lazy scritch. It was only in the last month that she’s started allowing him to leave her sight, but she still disliked it. When he gathered everything up to take back to STAR, she leaped onto his shoulder, nosing his ear. He grinned, turning his head to bump her lightly with his own nose.

“That tickles, Fuzzbrat.”

He stopped by the Captain’s office to drop off paperwork and offer a kitty treat to Raoul, sleek and lazy as ever, sprawled out on top of the Inbox, demanding tribute in exchange for not shredding vital documents. (“It’s a good system, fewer people trying to dump stuff they could really handle themselves on me,” Singh had said when Cisco had first asked.)

~ * ~ *~ *

The Flash Day Rally went off without a hitch, unless one was to count a kitten in a special made red trypolymer costume getting stuck halfway up the twenty foot banner she’d tried to climb and the interruption of a supervillain throwing things. The Boot prototype had failed somewhat spectacularly, but then Nyoom distanged herself from the banner and managed to trip the guy up while Barry came up with a plan B, or rather plan C, since Plan B was, as always “ run around really fast.”

He got in a few lucky blows, managing to escape while Barry was busy getting people out of the way of suddenly airborn hot-dog carts and scooters, but no one was injured, not really, and that counted as a good day in Barry’s book.

 

“Yeah, that was definetly  Al Rothstein,” Cisco gestured at the STAR Labs computer screens.

“So there are three of them?” Caitlin frowned. “Wells said--I mean--Thawne--I mean--Eobard.”

“He said a lot of things, like that Ronnie was dead, so I mean, grain of salt,” Cisco shrugged, making Fuzzwhump flatten her ears as she hung on to one shoulder--Lucy had joined him on the other, and they were getting bigger. There was hardly room.

“Yeah, but I mean, there’s still just one of me,” Ronnie frowned. “Barry, are you sure it was--”

“Yes, the body at the plant this morning was Rothstein. Al Rothstein, and he doesn’t have a twin, or anything. I mean, I’d say it was someone like Everyman, but…”

“Whoever it is, we need to figure out what it was they wanted, and why,” Caitlin said.

Barry ran a hand through his hair. “ I don’t know, I mean, he came to the Rally looking for me, maybe that’s all? If I give him a fight…”

“Yeah, well, before we go with that _brilliant_ plan, let’s figure out how to stop him,” Iris suggested. “I can look through the submissions to my blog, see what’s what.”

“And while you’re doing that, there might be something--” Cisco dug in his overlarge pocket. “The radiation tag from the crime scene was completely blank, and that’s like, impossible, so...might be worth looking into? Caitlin?”

~~ * * ~~

Barry was working on his own analysis of the crime scene, and a few other case files, when someone knocked on the doorframe. Nyoom went to investigate, and the smartly dressed man looked awkwardly at the cat leaving hair all over his slacks.

“Mr. Allen? I have something that is rather important for you.”

Barry knew what Lawyers tended to look like, there was just an aura about them, and he winced. “Look, if it’s about the letters…”

“So you have been getting them.” the man nodded. “I’m Greg Turk. I'm an attorney at Weathersby and Stone. As you know, Harrison Wells left the property to you and the two remaining employees as part of his living trust. Since he has been officially declared dead, though, there are requirements that must be addressed.”

“Wait what? What do you mean, Requirments?”

“If you’d looked at the letters we’d sent…” Greg spread his hands. “STAR Labs and the rest of Doctor Wells’ assets only remain with you if you watch this. The will was quite specific.”

Barry felt his gut roil. One more final taunt seemed too much to bear, but that was likely exactly what it was.  Maybe something worse.

“Have you seen it?” Barry asked, hesitently.

“No, but the device will alert me when it’s been viewed. You have until the end of the week--it would have been longer, but the letters…” he nodded sharply. “It’s up to you, but you’ll be throwing away quite a bit if you refuse. Please come collect your cat.”

Barry opened a drawer and tossed a kitty treat at Nyoom, who released her grip on the lawyer’s no longer pristine dark slacks, leaving a heavy coating of white fur behind.

~~ * ~~

“I think I found a way to beat him,” Cisco said. “So, we figured out--well, we think, he drains radiation. Uses it to power himself. So, if we send you to distract him, and get Shmendrick close…”

“Then Battery Cat can drain this Atom Smasher.” Martin finished. Everyone stood around the cortex table.

“I like the nicknames,” Cisco said. Cailin let out a fake sounding sneeze, and Barry quickly nodded to bring everyone back to the main focus.

“The cells up at IH should be able to hold him, if he’s drain, right?”

“Theoretically. They’ve got suppressants so he wouldn’t be able to use his powers to suck up more radiation, at any rate.” Cisco agreed. “ So all we really need to do is catch him.”

“It’s too risky for us,” Ronnie said, pointing at the professor. “Anything we throw at him, he’d just eat, so it’s on you and the cats.”

The cats perked up. Those they didn’t always understand exactly what was going on, they were quick to figure out that whoever Barry was attacking, they were meant to also attack, and they’d get a fancy dinner and lots of cuddles for it.

“Hey, Schmendrick,” Iris cooed. “Ready to go make a nasty bad guy knock it off? Yes, yes you are.” He butted his head against her hand.

“Meeow?” _(Do I get Foooood?)_ he chirped.

( _Always food for helping. Always food anyway)_ Frieda licked her paw and twitched fuffed ears. ( _Sooner we get rid of the Nastybadguy, sooner food and calm again.)_

_~~ * * ~~_

The Al Rothstein lookalike was frankly massive, but Barry had always been good at dodging hamfisted swings, and he’d only gotten nimbler, avoiding stepping on Nyoom’s tail. It wasn’t too difficult to lure him to the badlands, were there would be no civilians in danger, and then set Schmendrick on him. The tortoiseshell cat sprang off a large bounder and sunk all his claws into the man’s arm, clinging for dear life, getting stronger even as the metahuman shrank smaller and smaller.

 

“Who are you?” Barry asked when he was normal sized again, and not even strong enough to stand. “Why did you kill Al Rothstein, why do you look like him?”

“You’d never believe me. Kill me, go ahead. It’s too late now.”

“I’m not going to kill you. Put you in prison for murder, yes. And try me.”

“Prison won’t keep me safe. Not from Zoom.”

“Zoom?”

But Atom-smasher refused to say another word. Schmendrick hopped off his captive so that Barry could deliver him to IH, taking a few extra milliseconds to give his dad a hug.

 

~~ * *~~

“So, we need to watch this thing,” Barry said, retrieving the device from where Nyoom was batting at it like one of her often mauled to death toys. “Who’s ready?” With the cats piled around them, Barry waited until everyone nodded, particularly Cisco--if it was a video with Thawne-as-Wells, it might set off Fuzzwhump, and that was the last thing anyone wanted. While his entire Starlabs family was there, many of the cats hadn’t bothered to stick to the cortex. Bear and Faulkner were down in the pipeline, according to the cameras, Lucy and Murgatroyd asleep in one of the empty closets, and those on the prowl for Grodd and the prodigal Apricot had yet to return. Still, it was a cozy enough setting, several cats draping themselves lazily over laps and shoulders, Iris scribbling in a notepad ideas for her next article, Cisco keeping Fuzz’s attention on a bit of string.

 

Before Barry could click play, however, footsteps approached down the hall. Everyone looked, noting that anyone with access was already there, even Eddie, finished with some paperwork, and Clarissa.

 

A fair haired man stood framed in the doorway, one hand held out in appeasement. It didn’t stop Joe and Eddie from reaching for their guns.

“Who are you, how did you get in here?” Barry demanded, eyes flicking to the suit in the display case for anyone to see.

“My name,” the man swallowed. “is Jay Garrick, and--”

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by Goldie’s sharp “Mrrt.”

_(Liar)_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

Before anyone could breathe, or Fuzzwhunp could even begin to growl, Barry moved, protective instincts guiding his feet. A chair clattered and papers went everywhere as he seized the stranger by the arm—all muscle—and hauled him bodily down to the pipeline.  He dumped him in one of the padded blue cells, sealing the door quickly, lightning sparking along his hands.

“Wait,” the man said, touching the glass-- he’d gotten up fast. “You’re making a mistake.”

“I don’t think I am,” Barry snapped, “unless you want to enlighten me. Who are you, really, and what do you want?”

“I told you, Jay Garrick—“ the man started, and Barry wished he’d brought Goldie down with him.

“Bullshit,” Barry said, cutting him off. “You and I both know that’s a lie. You broke in, and now you’re lying to me, that’s not helping your case.”

The man seemed startled. “How did you know?” he asked, voice curious rather than angry. Barry shifted. He knew it would be unwise to reveal Goldie as the ace in the hole, if this guy meant them harm, but now he could be sure of anything Definitely-Not-Jay-Garrick said. He opened his mouth to lie, then felt pressure against his leg. Taking a microsecond to look down, he saw Bear leaning against him, spotty tail twitching merrily.

“It’s part of the job,” Barry said at least, finding truthful words. “We’ve had to get good at spotting liars.” The intent of honesty was enough for Bear, it seemed. “Now, answer the question. Who. Are. You?”

The man gaped for a moment like a fish, mouthing words that died on his tongue, before ducking his head. He almost looked vulnerable.

“I don’t care to use my given name. It has…negative associations, memories…I’ve been using the name Jay.”

Barry frowned, reaching down to scoop up Bear. It had to be true, then, if this …Jay… was saying it.

“Please,” Apparently-Jay-Garrick said. “I came to warn you. Your world is in danger.”

Bear blinked, breathing in the Nyoomman’s confusion scent. He’d gotten better at understanding human speaking, working with Puppy and the Big Man. Even Sue knew what ‘danger’ was. The smallest kit could understand that concept, and ant cat worth their claws learned it along with ‘Food’, ‘Safe’, and ‘ Vet.’ Bear’s first stood up on end. He knew things were Dangerous all the time, that was what Ris always said, why Puppy had to be careful, why all of the clowder, human and cat alike, had to be careful. But the new-box-man had said “world” and that scared Bear. It was true, and that scared him more. The World was big. If something could make the whole world in danger, it would be big, too.

Barry struggled to maintain his grip on the now writhing cat.

“Barry,” Jay tried again to get a response. He got it.

“How do you know my name?” Barry realized too late he was in his civvies, no mask, and had used his superspeed. If Jay hadn’t known who he was already, he did now.

“I know all your names,” the man said squaring his shoulders. “I know, it’s a lot to take in but—I had to learn who you all were, had to make sure you were here. You see, on my earth, they call me the Flash.”

Barry dropped Bear in surprise, and without a word, bolted to the cortex. Bear hissed breifly, and followed, yowling for Faulkner to follow.

~~ * ~~ ** ~~~~

“What does he mean, ‘his world’?” Iris demanded, scratching the kitties.

“Dear?” Carissa turned to Martin, who was beaming like a schoolboy.

“I’ll of course need to speak with him, but—well, it seems the Multiverse Theory has been proven!” at the blank looks he received from Joe and Iris (though surprisingly not from Eddie) he looked to his wife. She waved a hand in their gesture for “elaborate and explain.” “Right. Well, just recently, the many-different-worlds theory proposed interaction with parallel universes was plausible. Essentially, multiple earths, similar is some respects, different in others, all…exist.” He smiled again, as if Chanukah had come early.

“Yeah…I’m still not following.” Iris shooed Ginger off the computer keyboard—if he got upset, he might melt it again. Ronnie came and collected him.

“I don't understand what the hell any of you are talking about,” Joe said flatly.

Cisco stroked Fuzzwhump’s nose, and spoke up. “It’s like…” he tried to think of a movie to use as an example, but his mind was stubbornly blank. “Narnia? I mean, not really Narnia, but, other worlds, similar to our own. Hundreds, millions, infinite really, but we only need to care about ours usually—I mean, if this guy’s telling the truth, he’s from another world and—hey! I be that’s were the second Al Rothstein came from! It’s like that rip off series, Door Within?”

“I read those,” Eddie wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Everyone had, like… a double. Except that when one went through they switched? I think? Or if one died the other did too. And clearly that wasn’t the case here.”

“Ok, so it’s not a perfect comparison,” Cisco grumbled. “What more do you want?”

“Hey, no, I think I get it.” Joe stepped in. “two earths, or however many, and now there’s…some kind of opening?”

“How do you figure?” Eddie asked.

“Well, other Al and this guy got here somehow, that much doesn’t take a rocket scientist.”  Joe nodded to Martin.

“I hardly work for NASA. I did always want to be an astronaut, but alas,” Martin shook his head. “Had I been, I may not have met Clarissa, or worked on FIRESTORM, and then where would we be?”

“Dead,” Ronnie snarked. Caitlin nudged him lightly. Scrap let out a sharp string of mews.

(NO DEAD I PROTECT) she shrilled. Caitlin lifted her from the pocket she’d claimed to reassure her.

“Annnyway,” Cisco said. “What do you think he meant, about our world being in danger? Maybe it happened to his world?”

“I didn’t ask. Figured I should talk to you guys first. I don’t want to let him out yet, truth or no. But…he said he’s the Flash on his earth.”

“Hmph. It was your nickname first,” Cisco said, though he had no way of proving it, except that Goldie didn’t mew, which was proof enough.

“Alright you all, figure out what he means.” Joe shrugged his coat on. “Iris, Barry, all of you, careful. Wells was able to bend the truth around the cats, don’t risk things.  It’s late, Eddie, Bar, we’ve got the early shift tomorrow. I’m going to get some shuteye. World will still makr less than zero sense in the morning, I’m sure.”

Eddie left, clapping Barry on the shoulder and kissing Iris’s cheek, Goldie in his wake. Bear had elected, it seemed, to remain behind. Up on the desk, Ginger batted at the flashdrive until Ronnie coaxed him away.

“I guess it can wait til later,” Barry said. “We’ve got three more days to watch it.  Jay—he said he knows who we all are, but It’s probably best if I’m the only one who, you know, deals with him. Keep you all--”

“Barry Allen, if the next word out of your mouth is ‘safe’ then so help me god,” Iris started.  Caitlin nodded.

“Barry, he saw all of us. Don’t pull that card.”

“Well, I’m going to go talk with him. This could be useful for my next paper,” Martin gave a satisfied nod, and headed for the pipeline. Clarissa sat back down. At Ronnie’s Look she laughed.

“I’m not stopping him. Allen, you should probably go with him if you want to get answers instead of, Goodness, information on the subtle differences in—well, I don’t know.”

Barry followed Martin down the stairs, Nyoom and a few others following. He was used to keeping longer hours than this anyway.

~~ * ~~ * ~~

“Yo, Barry,” Cisco’s voice came over the intercom. “Fire at the waterfront, get on it.”

Barry and Nyoom bolted, leaving Martin with Bear on a little folding stool in front of Maybe-Jay’s cell, chatting about science.

The fire itself was not too hard to put out—there was lots of water at hand, and no one trapped inside. No one trapped, that was. Barry faced the man—face vaguely familiar, but not enough to place—in the charred front room.

“There you are, Flash.“ His smirk grew, and Barry ran at him, fist already formed. The man—the metahuman—dissolved into sand as Barry hit him, stumbling at the lack of resistance. “Honestly, I thought it would be harder than this, taking you out.”

Barry regained his feet quickly, but not quickly enough to avoided what felt like a sandbag buffet sending him crashing back to the ground. Nyoom yowled a battle cry, sinking her teeth into the man’s leg and spitting sand for her trouble. Sirens wailed in the distance—the firefighters, no doubt.

“We’ll finish this another time. See ya ‘round, Flash.” There was a hissing noise, the skittering of dry sand over stone, and then nothing. Barry lifted Nyoom, and took off for STAR.

~~ * ~~

“Detectives?” a female voice came from the doorway to the partition of the bullpen where the metahuman task force worked. Granted, at the moment it was down to Eddie and Joe with Cisco as a consultant, while Officer Ahuda was recovering from a broken leg, but still.

“Yes?” Eddie asked, expecting a casefile marked “unexplained” and nothing more. Instead, one of the newer detectives—from right before the Singularity, if he recalled correctly—held out her hand.

“Spivot, Patty Spivot.” She had a firm handshake. “ Captain Singh mentioned that there’s—there might be open places on your metahuman tastforce, Detective.”

“Well, yes,” Eddie blinked. He’d tried to hand the reins to Joe, clearly still more in the know, but the older man had told him he had to learn to finish what he started—‘I still outrank you, though.’ “Um. Are you… you do realize metahumans have superpowers, right?”

“I’m not stupid, sir,” she said, voice as firm as her handshake. “I know.”

Eddie looked at Goldie, as if to ask what she thought. The cat looked up from her box on the floor by Joe’s desk, then tucked her face under her tail again.

“It’s harder work than ordinary police work,” Eddie said at last. “Riskier, you’ll need to train with other weaponry, it’s more fast thinking than anything, and we’re front lines for things most people see only in nightmares.”

“If you think I’m going to back down like a scared kid, I’m not. I’m a little green, but I was top of my class, Detective Thawne. I’m not scared.”

Eddie shook his head. “You should be. Last Christmas, the entire taskforce but me and West were killed. Think about this before you throw in with us.”

Spivot lifted her chin. “I have.” Still, it seemed she hadn’t known about the massacre at STAR.

“Sleep on it,” Eddie advised. “You’ll still see plenty of metahuman action, taskforce or no.”

Singh’s voice cut through the room. “West, Thawne, arson investigation down at the docks. Word was the Flash was there, probably metahuman, mighta been Rory. Get down there and get me some answers.”

Patty bounced on her toes. “You’ll need a CSI, you know, I studied a little of that at—“

“I’ll call Barry,” Joe told Eddie as he walked past.

“I can help you. Three heads are better than two. Or, four are, I mean—“ she grinned. Eddie paused, just long enough to have David Singh walk past.

“Thawne, take Spivot with you, if she’s the only one volunteering. Call it a trial run. Go. You’re not solving anything standing here.”

“Fine. C’mon Goldie.” Eddie started walking.

“Was that a comment about my hair? I’m not a dumb blo—“

“It’s the cat’s name,” Eddie said patiently. “Let’s go.”

~~ * ~~ * ~~ **

It was probably a good thing they’d brought her, Patty found bits of sand that Barry hadn’t noticed—then again, he’d been looking in the room where he’d fought, not the back room where the fire had started, assuming that any evidence back there would have been too damaged. Half the sample he’d taken to CCPD, the rest Caitlin was looking at with Cisco. Barry and Martin were consulting  What’s-His-Bucket about a metahuman who could turn into sand, see if he’d come through the same breach, if there was a way to fight him. Cisco hoped he wouldn’t show up at STAR, cleaning was a pain without sand everywhere.

Possibly Jay had said it was a metahuman named “Sand Demon” which 1) wasn’t a terrible nickname and 2) brought up a whole host of questions. Jay(???) hadn’t known the guy’s real name, but he promised to “teach Barry how to defeat him” which if you asked Cisco was a load of bull, because clearly Jay (name pending) hadn’t been able to defeat him on his earth, and there was no way they were letting him out of the Be Quiet box.

Cisco still wanted a closer look at the sand, since it was apparently actually skin cells. He put some of the sample on a slide to examine, and frowned when he’d put on too much. He reached out to brush some off, and the world instantly spun, turning blue with a pulse that made his head ache.

He wasn’t in his workroom. He was in a dimly lit warehouse—boathouse? He saw a boat. Burned. Barry stood, facing a man with wild hair and a manic grin. His words were muffled, like coming through water, but he was taunting, Barry ran, sand flew everywhere, smashing—

Cisco leaped backward, and knocked against his own chair, in his workroom, alone.

It wasn’t the first strange vision he had, but it was the most vivid. And it had hurt.

Fuzzwhump mewed softly, careful not to startle him, and climbed up to perch on his shoulder, nuzzling his ear. He reached up a trembly hand, pulling her down into a cuddle.  She purred hard enough to vibrate his bones, and something in him wanted to mimic the sound. He settled for rolling his tongue, close as a purr as humankind could get. She trilled again, concerned.

“It’s nothing, Fuzz, just a headache.” He wasn’t sure what he was lying to a cat. Unlike Faulkner, her intelligence was more feline than human, more normal. His words soothed her some, though she kept up the purr as she started washing his face. He laughed at the rasp of her tongue, but the worry remained. What had he seen? Worse—how had he seen it?

~~ * * ~~

“I think we should talk to Garrick,” Ronnie said as the group gathered in the cortex. “We’ll need any information we can get on this guy. Martin and I should be able to help some, this time.” He made a face—he hadn’t liked having to sit idly by, his powers useless to help fight Atom-Smasher.

Martin made a noise at that, and everyone turned to face him. “Well, I’m no expert, but heat and sand…typically that’s how one makes glass, if I’m not mistaken. Unless we aim to kill this man…”

Ronnie kicked at his chair. “I swear, the next threat better be something we can set on fire.”

“I’m sure it will be,” Caitlin promised, taking his hand in her cool one. “Ronnie’s right. He might have some ideas. We don’t have to let him out, though I would like to run some tests, just blood samples. If he says he was the Flash…we really need more information.”

Cisco nodded absently. “The sand—was actually skin cells. He was right about that. For whatever that’s worth. I’m not saying, trust him yet, but…” he shrugged, and cuddled Fuzzwhump. Nearby, Scrap curled up in Caitlin’s empty coffee mug and snored.

Barry spoke up. “I think we should watch the flashdrive. I mean, Joe and Eddie are at work, but…I get the feeling it shouldn’t wait.”

Iris dragged a chair over. “Are you sure?”

“No.” Barry winced. “But…I mean if I don’t we lose the Lab, and probably the other stuff.  So there’s not much choice.”

Cisco reached out a hand. “We’re here.”

His hand jittery, Barry plugged in the flashdrive and clicked the file.

Fuzzwhump threw herself at the screen, hissing, as Dr. Well’s face filled the screen. Cisco reclaimed her, holding a bit tighter than was needful. “it’s fine, kit. It’s just a message. He’s dead.”

“Hello, Barry. If you're watching this, that means something has gone horribly wrong. I'm dead and the last 15 years have been for nothing. Bummer. 15 years. You know, when I realize that in all those years helping raise you, we were never truly enemies, Barry. I'm not the thing you hate. And so, I want to give you the thing that you want most. It won't matter. You'll never be truly happy, Barry Allen, trust me. I know you.”

Iris hit the pause button. “Bar, you know he’s just trying to get into your head. Under your skin. A last jab. It’s a lie. He doesn’t know you, not really. I do, we do. He never helped raise you, he—we don’t have to watch, we can let it run on mute and shott nerf guns at it.”

“I do have nerfguns,” Cisco brightened, even as Fuzzwhump continued to scrabble to get free, scratching his hands.

“No,” Barry said, soft. His hands were buried in Nyoom’s long fur. “It’s ok.”

Caitlin jabbed the resume button savagely.

On the screen, Wells grinned, his teeth too white, and straightened, clearing his throat. More of the kitties had gathered, Faulkner and Ginger and Felix lashing their tails in contempt. Fuzzwhump started her growl, and Nyoom and Scrap picked it up. Scrap grew to her full size, unfortunately not before exiting the coffee mug. Caitlin would mourn it later. This mattered more.

“Erase everything I said up to this point. Give the following message to the police:   
My name is Harrison Wells. Being of sound mind and body, I freely confess to the murder of Nora Allen.”

Barry gasped. Iris reached out and squeezed his shoulder. Shocked, Cisco released Fuzz, who stood on her stubby legs before the monitor and spat kitten curses for all she was worth as the confession continued.

“Oh, my God,” Ronnie said.

“He confessed,” Barry whispered. “He—this is what we need. My dad—I gotta call Joe. I gotta… oh, man, I’m supposed to start my shift in ten minutes, but…” he ran his hand through his hair.

“I’ll get the first part erased,” Cisco promised, scooting closer to the keyboard and shooing Faulkner away. “And I’m copying it now. In case he set it up to erase right after.” Cisco tapped the desk. “Knock on wood.”

Neither Joe nor Eddie could stop from offering Barry a hug when he showed up at their desk, beaming and bursting with explanation. “As soon as we’ve got the copy, I’ll talk to Cecile. Might wanna get advice from Lance, in Starling—Star, I guess it is now—since she’s not connected to you in any way.  But this could be all we need. Here, look through these books, see if you recognize the Sandy dude.”

~~ ** ~~

Barry had Id’d the guy from the warehouse, but a phone call to one of Joe’s contacts and a Goldie Test (patent pending) confirmed he wasn’t a meta, and hadn’t set the fire, or attacked the Flash. Eddie frowned a bit.

 “I guess he really is from the other earth, this Sand devil,” Joe said as he offered Goldie part of a sandwich.

“Sand Demon, I think,” Eddie agreed. “This is going to get complicated.”

“I’ll say. Especially with Spivot wanting to join up.”

“What do you think? About her?” Eddie asked.

“It’s still your task force, Eddie,” Joe said. “And we did well enough with Ahuda not knowing who the Flash is, if you’re worried about that.”

“If we’re going to be getting a new wave of Metas, and that Zoom guy Atom-smasher mentioned? We might need all the help we can get,” Eddie said. “There’s something that worries me though. I can’t put my finger on it, but I swear her name’s familiar.”

“Do a background look, then. It’s your taskforce. Singh can assign her as backup, but you don’t have to agree. She’s green, that’s enough that I’d hesitate.  You need to think about it as much as she does,” Joe finished his lunch. “She did good catching Slick, though.”

Joe left Eddie looking through files, escorting Slick out of the precinct. The man joked far too much for the detective’s liking.

“Go on, get out of here. And don’t think we aren’t keeping an eye on you.”

“Of course, of course.” He waved cheekily and turned a corner. Joe grimaced.

“Detective West!” Officer Patty Spivot grinned from near the top of the stairs, taking them two at a time. “I’m sorry there wasn’t enough to keep him. I’d have thought for sure….But if he wasn’t here, I guess he couldn’t be a meta, and it had to have been a meta who did this, and there are other arsonists. Still….”

“Well, that’s the Joe,” Joe said. “Can’t catch everyone.” He noticed that Patty’s expression darkened at that, but she smiled and nodded.

“I guess not, sir. But we’ll know where to look if he does something in the future.”

“Officer, it’s not my call if you join the task force or not. You did good work today, but it’s not always so lucky. What if he’d been the meta? What would you have done?”

Patty shook her head. “I’d have stopped him, sir, I’d—hey!”

Joe turned, and saw Slick walking back toward them.

“I thought I told you to get out of here?”

“Sorry,” the man drawled. “No can do. See, I need to find the Flash.”

Patty drew her weapon. “Stand down!” she ordered. “Hands in the air!”

His hands and arms dissolved into streams of sand even as he moved closer, and when she fired, the bullets passed through what should have been his shoulder, then chest.

“You’ll do nicely. I always did like having diversions.” A fist formed in the sand, knocking Joe to the ground hard enough that the last thing he saw was Patty’s gun dropping as she hit the steps behind him.

~~ * * ~~

“What’s your way of beating Sand Demon?” Barry asked Jay(?) in a rush, standing outside the cell. “Tell me, now.”

“You finally came to your senses, then? I’ve told you, I’m trying to help you.”

“Sand Demon kidnapped my foster father, and another cop,” Barry said, pacing, lighting just beneath his skin, aching to run, to do something.

 “I guess you're gonna have to trust me now, huh, kid?” Jay stopped when Barry glared, and held up his hands. “Right. We're looking for any structures that promote humidity. Greenhouses, grow rooms, anything of the sort. His body will literally start to fall apart if he becomes dehydrated. As for how, well, he likes to attack on two fronts, that’s probably why he took them both. As for how you’ll stop him…. With lightning.”

Barry paused. “Yeah. Lightning…what?”

“You can harness the energy, the lightning you generate when you run. I can’t exactly show you—I lost my speed to Zoom, but—“

“No, not that. Heat and sand. That makes glass.” Barry’s frown deepened.

“Well, yes, that’s how it works on my earth.”

“He’d shatter. He’d die. That’s murder.”

“Not if it’s in defense of your—“ Jay started. Barry shook his head.

“Thanks for the tip. We handle things differently here, or we try to.” he bolted.

~~ * * ~~

Thanks to Cisco’s hunch, it was easy enough to find Patty and Joe, and from his hiding place, Barry saw the concussive bomb strapped to the bottom of Patty’s chair. They’d need to time this right, or rather he would. The rush of wind had alerted everyone, Joe looked around, frantic.

“Is that you, Flash?” Slick asked, grinning.

“Meow.” Nyoom leaped daintily down from a stack of potting soil bags.

“What the?” Slick said as Nyoom leaped at his chest at full speed. He let her pass through him, and she sneezed, skidding where she landed.

“Flashcat. Well that’s new,” Slick muttered.  He turned back to watching the door, only to be overtaken.

Barry raced forward, taking the bomb from under the chair and tossing it into a far corner, where the large reverse tabby Moose waited. A golden shield formed around the bomb, and when it exploded, the soil within the circle shifted, but nothing else moved. As Barry cut Joe and Patty free, he joined the fray of kittens.

Felix was taking full advantage of phasing, and was currently half in, half out of Sand Demon’s right arm, rendering it useless—if it turned to sand, the kitten only shifted further up or down, remaining embedded. Nyoom was scattering sand across the room, mixing it with the potting spoil just enough to be a pain.

Lucy had allowed the man’s foot to kick at her, and when he’d turned the limb to sand to avoid her teeth in retaliation, she had peed on him. He was so distracted by all this, that Barry’s rabbit punch to the back of the head was unexpected and undefended against. Slick went down hard.

** ~~ **

Patty was a little unsure about the Flash spiriting a known criminal away, and not to the police station. Joe assured her it was because of very good reasons he would explain when neither of them had concussions. Still, rescue was rescue. And if anything, she wanted to join the task force more than ever.

Eddie nodded when he saw her. “Officer, I’m glad you’re alright. Were you cleared for—“

“I’m fine.” She smiled, nodding at Joe, sitting at his own desk. “really. Look, I thought about what you said, and—“

“Patty,” Eddie held out the folder. “I know about Mark Mardon. I’m not stupid, and the Mardon brothers—I’ve been on cases with them twice. Be honest with me. Why do you really want to join this? You kept your head, from what Joe says, but he told me what you said to Slick. About how his powers only highlighted his worst parts, right place, right time? I need to know.”

Patty took a deep breath, eyeing the golden tabby everyone knew no one could lie around, sprawled on the desk.

“Mark Mardon killed my dad. While he was waiting in line at the bank, Mark shot my dad in the face for a few hundred dollars. Then a few months later, Mark and his brother got powers. Two murderers got superpowers. So that's why I'm here, Sir. That's why I'm so hell-bent on being on your task force. 'Cause there's some bad people out there and they can do anything. And I may not have powers, but I want to stop them.” She nodded sharply, waiting.

Eddie nodded, slowly. “And what do you think about Metahumans in general? Not just the Flash, or Mardon, or Slick. On a whole.”

“I—“ She hadn’t been expecting that. “It seems like all we see are the bad ones, sir. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I’d like to believe there are some that aren’t murderers. That there are others who just...want to live their lives. I don’t know if there are. But the ones that hurt people, I want to stop.”

Eddie sighed. “Well, you’ll be working with at least one Meta who’s on our side.”

Joe looked up. “ Eddie,” he said, warningly. Eddie nodded. He’d chatted at Goldie the night before, and her silence had meant a good deal.

“Yeah, the Flash, he works with you from time to time.” Patty shrugged. “He’s saved a lot of people.”

“Not him,” Eddie said. “I mean, yes, we do work with him. But I meant someone else.”

“Who?” Patty asked, more confused than ever.

Eddie held up a hand, the tips of his fingers dancing with small blue flame. “Me.”

~~ ** ~~

Martin and Ronnie had taken over the lab’s larger work room to try to learn more about the breaches, mostly Martin, with Ronnie there to remind the old timer to eat. Cisco debated going to talk to the guests in the basement prison, but opted not to. They’d already gotten dinner, and he mostly wanted to go home to his bed and sleep. He gathered  a few of his things that he’d brought to work on, when he noticed the box on his desk. Barry had dropped it off after running a copy of Well’s confession to laurel. Inside was her sonic device, and a request –it had gotten broken in a fight, could he please fix it. Cisco pulled the piece out, and gasped as his world turned blue.

 _Laurel, and another woman—Sara, her sister, who was dead, wasn’t she?_ The vision shifted, _a pool of water, dark and bubbling, Sara in it, her body and then breathing—someone screaming?_

Cisco threw himself out of the vision, panting. As he tried to process what he’d seen, he started shoving things into his bag. “Fuzz, I think we need to go on a field trip.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the whole "unless otherwise stated or heavily implied, it still happened" thing is still on, so "Jay" still told his whole story about Zoom taking his speed (edited and abridged to contain no actual lies) and Patty still met Barry and stuff. Also Martin still found the breaches, but we'll deal with that later. 
> 
> I hope you liked some of the plot zig-zags! please let me know


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it has been So Long since I saw this episode but tbh it's not one I wanted to rewatch so. it gets the same treatment as many others: glossed over. unless otherwise noted or implied by kitten canon, the story stays the same.

 

Fuzzwhump finally pulled away from the scritches. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the attention from the woman that made bird screechy noises, the same one that had been so nice last year. Fuzz was pretty sure her name was Lurl. Really, the scritches from Lurl and her littermate, who had been dead and wasn't anymore was very nice, they knew all the right places to pet, but she wanted to run around see her sibs. It had been such a long time since she'd seen Cassie, Spike, and Santiago. As if reading her mind, Sco set her down, and she licked his hand before racing off.

Cisco leaned back in his chair. It had been a very long day, and now that the race against the clock, and the worry and the thankfully not having to fight assassins over his cat stuff was finally over, all he wanted to do was sit for a while. Laurel and Sara were crowded together, arms locked in a shoulder hug, while Felicity went over some of the things he told her needed to get fixed (especially the wiring) if she didn’t want the Arrow Cave to blow up. After a few minutes, watching the cats sniff and bat at each other, then rub cheeks and wash ears, Oliver sat down across from Cisco.

“Cisco,” the vigilante said. Cisco was glad the voice scrambler was off, it hurt his ears, like the bass of it was somehow inside his skull. “I’m glad you and, uh—your cat got here in time to stop Laurel.”  
Cisco very pointedly shifted, a little awkward, not wanting to get caught up in another shouting match, especially not one where he definitely sided with the person who wasn’t currently armed with a bow. He’d had enough drama already, and it wouldn’t solve anything, no point in Oliver trying to pick another fight.  The evil Hot Tube hadn’t been used, Sara was a live, and the League of Assassins had given his cat a nickname.

Also, Caitlin and Barry had texted twelve times each asking what was going on, and he was sure to get enough of an earful from them and Joe. With his lab no longer occupied by Fuzzwhump, he excused himself to give Felicity a lecture on copper wiring and the importance of cat proofing.

Fuzz had been pleased to see the others, butting her head against Santiago's, and going to lick Cassie's ears only for Cassie to get to hers first. Fuzzwhump pulled away, and Cassie delicately spat out the small mouthful of fur. When Spike finally joined them, abandoning his perch on the Shout Shoot Man's quiver, they swapped stories from the last few months. Santiago had chewed through a solid metal door, and then some bad bracelets and people leashes, he said, _(even though, are supposed to be for dogs, not people, to rescue them. The shout-shoot man made lots of people angry, and I think he and the Chitter Chatter one are mates.)_ Spike had been used as a "jectile weapon" and was very proud. For her part, Fuzz told them that the Wheelman was dead, and that the Soft one and her Tom were doing well, and so were most everyone else.

 _(Another people came. Says, he is Nyooman, too, but he lies. Goldie watch him, but...) s_ he trailed off as Spike purred, his large human coming over to pet him just above where the spikes started when he got skittish. That part always itched, and Quiet-Startled knew it. He was even starting to get less Startled around them, which was good. _(Wheelman left video, too. Face. But said things that made Nyooman happy? So.)_ She mrrted, licking a paw and rubbing where Cassie had groomed. _(Maybe, can visit soon.)_

 _CThink so,)_  Cassie mewed, pointing with her tail to where Sco had left the Chitter Chatter one to talk to Lurl. Fuzz's ears pricked as she heard the word "killed." She knew that one, and it made her nervous. She ditched her littermates without further thought, springing off the edge of a convenient table and hooking claws into Sco's jacket. He pulled her off his back and cuddled her close. "See? She worries. I think she remembered it before I did. So, if you ever want to talk about it, Sara. Eddie remembers some, too."

"Exclusive club," Laurel shook her head. "Hope I never join, though if you set up some kind of get together…"

"Feel free to come to Central whenever," Cisco said as Sara muttered that she 'didn't need group therapy.' Finally, both agreed to visit in a two days, both to see their mother, chat with Eddie about mutual experiences for Sara, and help out Barry with Henry's case.

* * *

 

A short two weeks after, with Henry’s release looming on the horizon, nothing but paperwork left, Cisco sat at Jitters with Caitlin, Laurel, and Barry, drinking coffee and sharing pastries. Fuzzwhump was curled in his lap, and Scrap was tucked into Caitlin’s purse, but they’d become welcome guests, and frequent ones. One week the tip jars had even been a “which is cuter” contest with pictures of them. Scrap had won by two dollars and fifty-two cents, plus three Canadian pennies. (The next week had been a contest between Flash and “Flashcat” and Nyoom had won by a significantly higher margin.) They’d been talking They’d been talking normally, Cisco nursing his second Flash espresso, when Fuzzwhump had lifted her head and hissed, flattening her ears. Scrap did the same, her head swiveling, trying to find where the familiar smell was coming from.

“Cisco,” a woman’s voice purred, and Fuzzwhump lunged toward Lisa Snart’s face, claws extended. Laurel caught her, passing the kitten back and at the same time shifting, ready to attack herself. While she knew Fuzzwhump was over protective (the stitches in Ray Palmer’s ear had been proof of that) her instincts were shouting that there was trouble. “Long time, no see. I missed you.”

“Snart.” Cisco disguised his flinch in holding back the 5 pounds of murderous kitten in his arms. “What do you want? You know I’ve got the Flash, Firestorm, and half of CCPD on speed-dial, right, so don’t try-”

“Aww, don’t be like that,” Lisa dipped a shoulder, batting fake lashes at him. “And you can call them. Well, Flash and Fireboy. Police, not so much.”

“Police it is,” Cisco started to reach for his phone, knowing that if Lisa did try anything, he was better protected in this moment than the Queen of England, the President, and the Pope combined.

“Wait,” Lisa said, the flirtatious mask dropping. “I need your help, and your superfriends’. Please. My brother’s been kidnapped.”

“Oh, wow. Kidnapped. That’s terrible. I can’t _possibly_ imagine how horrible that must be for you, kidnapped brother.” Cisco deadpanned. “Call the police, that’s what they’re for you remember the deal, you’re supposed to leave us alone.”

Laurel looked from Lisa, to Cisco, to the anger in Caitlin and Barry’s eyes, and decided to say nothing. She remembered the name Snart, but it had to be the brother—Felicity had mentioned him once. Fuzwhump almost broke free of Cisco’s grip, but Laurel privately decided not to bother stopping her, this time. She didn’t like the look that Lisa had given Cisco earlier.

“Look, I’m desperate, I can’t go to the police. He’d be an acceptable loss if things got violent, and you owe us.”

“Uh, no?” Caitlin said. “If I remember correctly, and I do, the agreement was, you stay away from us, and you don’t go to jail for kidnapping, torture, attempted murder and whatever Crime of the Day, and you not only are breaking that right now, but last May when you set serial killers loose on the city.”

“Only one. Mardon’s not a serial killer, just a bank robber who’s killed more than three people, and Bivolo technically hasn’t killed anyone.”

“Technicality,” Laurel put in. “Her point stands. Go to the police or your little crime buddies, don’t bother my friends again.”

Lisa blew air out of her lungs. “We’ll owe you, then. I’ll give you Nimbus and Bivolo, I know where they’re hiding out, and they’re useless. Dunno where Mardon is. And Lenny’ll owe you a favor in the future, too. Just, please.”

Barry hesitated, looking around the table. “I’m an authorized notary,” Laurel said. “Get that in writing.”

* * *

 

“So. You know Barry Allen, right?” Patty asked Eddie as they waited for the CSI—not Barry—to finish going over the body. “Because, I mean, well, I got to kind of talk to him a little but, I kinda, well, you know. Babbled. So I was wondering, if um. I scared him off? Talking about his reports?”

“Nah,” Eddie said, looking at his notepad. The body’s head was missing, so this was going to be fun times for exactly no one. “He was pretty thrilled.  Just busy, what with his dad and all.”

“Dr. Wells,” Patty nodded. “You know, all the old stuff on that case—I wasn’t snooping, but there were some articles and stuff and—well, it almost seemed like it was a metahuman. The lightning, the—“  
  
“Spivot,” Eddie said warningly.

“I know, I know, not all metas are murderers, not all murderers are metas. But do you think Wells was one?” she asked, suddenly startling. “oh! I thought I stepped on an ear. Nope. Just a rock. Shaped like an ear. Huh.”

“Let’s focus on the case at hand?” Eddie wondered if he had ever been that bright eyed and eager, then reminded himself that yes, he had been, less than a year ago. Funny how getting kidnapped by your murderous future great great grandson, killing yourself and being brought back to life with bona fide superpowers made regular police work a little less overwhelming. Patty noticed some irregularities, and came to the conclusion that the head had been blown off, and Eddie hoped very, very hard that this wasn’t another Trickster wannabe.

* * *

 

It wasn’t. It was Captain Cold’s father, and there was a bomb inside of Lisa’s neck, and a time limit. Barry had agreed to pretend to join the Snart’s crew to help stall for time and protect people, which given his lying skills had seemed like a terrible idea, but the best one they had. Cisco had muttered that maybe this would make the siblings think twice  about threatening people to get at him/ Barry/anyone really, and had only felt a little guilty when Lisa shot him a hurt look. Ok, a lot guilty, but that was only because there was a bomb in her head and the second cutest kitten in central city had tried to murder her twice in the last ten minutes.  Jay (#maybe), down in his box, had tried to offer his help, but had been flatly ignored, his last suggestion had been murder and no one wanted to deal with that. With Eddie and Patty still working on their caseload (in addition to the murdered tech from Cold’s crew, they had two other cases, likely connected to Bivolo) and Ronnie and Stein playing backup for Barry, that left Caitlin and Cisco to try to get the bomb out, and no one was terribly happy about the arrangement.

Finally, Caitlin had come up with something, but it wasn’t until Greebo, the sole powerless cat left, a rather mangled manx whose missing front leg and tattered ear proved his adventures before coming to STAR leaped onto her lap and settled that Lisa calmed down enough to let them try. It couldn’t have come soon enough, as over the coms Snart Senior threatened to hit the button. Before he could, though, or turn a weapon on anyone else, there was a loud explosion on the other end, followed by a triumphant shout.

“Finally, a threat we could set on fire. About time,” Ronnie shouted. Under his voice came the rumbling purr of Ginger, and a cursing Elder Snart, which only lasted until Leonard shot him with the Cold gun.

When Barry turned him in, he reminded him to keep his mouth shut, as was the deal--plus, they'd saved Lisa. Snart owed him, life for life. The man hadn't even paused before nodding.

Lisa at least, was true to her word, giving up the safe house where Bivolo and Nimbus were hiding out, though when she left Star Labs, Greebo followed. Cisco wasn’t worried for the cat-Greebo could take care of himself, and if anything did go wrong, well, he was pretty sure he’d be able to see it.  
His headaches and visions were getting more and more frequent, but still the only one he told was Fuzzwhump.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I'm sorry this took so long. hope you're still here. gonna try to get regular updates!  
> also just because things didn't happen here doesn't mean the won't?? the portals info and henry's homecoming and Mom West will likely make it into next chapter, since, because of Reasons like Ronnie not being dead, that episode is...significantly altered.


	4. Chapter 4

All things considered, it was good that Clarissa had more or less officially taken over as the Team Star Labs Mother Hen. Not that Caitlin wasn’t good at it, or that Joe was too preoccupied, but they both had jobs, ad clingy kittens, and quite a lot on their plates at any given time, which made things like planning a welcome home party for Henry Allen difficult. Clarissa, as fond of Barry as any potential grandchild, had been more than happy to take over preparations when Joe, Eddie, and Patty were called in on more cases than expected. Even with Nyoom and a few of the other kittens underfoot, Clarissa had gotten the West house cleaner than it had been in months (Nyoom, with all her static fur, was an easily bribed duster), a cake baked, and had used her connections at the JCC and the senior center to track down some of the things from the estate sale of most of the Allen’s property, setting those things out of reach of cat paws. That, she told Iris with a laugh was harder than anything else, it seemed nowhere was truly safe from the metakitties. Still, they seemed to know better than to cross Clarissa, and she wondered if it was because the more human intelligent ones had explained it to the rest, or if they had seen her with the spray bottle. Not that she’d ever use it on the furballs unless they were doing something dangerous like—

“No!” Clarissa pointed at Schrodinger, who was pawing at the hot oven door as if he were going to walk into it. “Don’t you do it. Don’t you dare do it. You are not Ginger, go on, out of the kitchen.”

As cats do, the mottled cat gave her a bored look, and stalked off, as if the whole exit was his own idea. Clarissa shook her head at him, and checked the timer. The potatoes would be done in a few minutes, right on time for Barry to pick up Henry and get him back here. Things were finally, finally peaceful, which was saying quite a lot for Central City.

Joe and Eddie were outside, watching Martin and Ronald barbeque burgers, offering “help.” Caitlin and Iris were talking quietly, keeping an eye on the boys to make sure nothing went too terribly wrong, though really the threshold for what qualified for ‘terribly wrong’ was ridiculously low. Most of the metakitties were still at Star Labs, but several were present—Clarissa knew most of their names, but not all. Still, she knew that Caitlin’s pocket kitten, Scrap, was responsible for protecting Firestorm from the military, and without Cisco’s…well, she didn’t want to contemplate what might have happened had  she not intervene. The end of the world, potentially.  With little else to do but wait for the guest of honor to arrive, Clarissa sat, and within seconds had one cat—Schrodinger again—curled on her lap, and another—she thought it might have been Georgia—curled at her feet. Well, fine. She was old, her joints bothered her, she could sit for a time. Really, it was always best in this mess of a family to take what breaks one could. There was never any telling when disaster might strike.

As if on cue, a rosebush outside burst into flames. The cats didn’t so much as twitch. Clarissa let out a long-suffering sigh, and declined to deal with it either.  Let someone with better knees deal with it.

* * *

 

The fire was doused quickly, and shortly thereafter Caitlin and Iris herded the men inside, smelling vaguely of smoke, but with a few dozen burgers balanced on platters. Clarissa retrieved the potatoes from the oven, well seasoned, and Iris dug in the fridge for the rest of the meal. Slowly, the table vanished underneath the mountain of food, with most of the cats—a good seven or so—looking on and licking their whiskers. Cisco placated them with an entire bag of treats and the salvaged bits of the burgers that had been casualties of the yard fire.

Barry arrived seconds later, before any of the food had even begun to cool, leading Henry after him. The poor man was almost instantly mobbed by cats, twining around his ankles and purring loudly. He seemed to remember them from a previous encounter; Clarissa wasn’t certain what it had been, exactly. Still, he very nearly had to eat standing up, lest whichever cat had claimed his lap steal his meal. Eventually, though, the cat was convinced to settle and curl up, and everyone managed to eat in relative peace. Clarissa made sure the young superheroes got enough to eat, refilling plates even when they made token protests, insisting she should have some leftovers. Over cake, Iris West pulled out a photo album, and it all dissolved into childhood stories. Mostly from Joe and Iris about Barry, but everyone got in on the fun, doing their best to bring the far past to the future, not to gloss over the last decade and a half but rather to knit it together.

Martin and Henry were discussing favorite novels, with Joe chiming in when (if) he recognized a title, or Cisco commenting, and Clarissa took that as her cue. Entering the hall closet with a care for Lucy’s paws (now when had that cat gotten here?) she pulled the cardboard box from the shelf and carried it into the living room, setting it beside the closed photo album.

“Mrs. Stein?” Henry asked, puzzled.

“Clarissa,” she corrected. “It’s not all of them, I’m afraid, but I did my best.” She picked up one of the kittens, Felix, she thought was the name, who had climbed atop the box and was attempting to either sink through it or climb into it.

Henry pulled the box toward him, confused, and opened the laps. Barry craned his neck, curious, as Henry pulled out a rather battered and dusty paperback, and another, and a third. “What—“ he opened one, and Barry could easily make out his mother’s handwriting on the inside cover. “Where did you find these?”

“I’m old, I have old friends, we can find near about anything at an estate sale or second hand shop.  Esther’s got a niece who works with the folks that handled the sale of your things, she did some digging for me. Had to give her two of my recipes, but it was worth it. I found some jewelry and other things, too, it’s in there.” When the man looked ready to cry, Clarissa just smiled. “Your boy saved my husband’s life. It’s the least I could do.”

The sentimental moment was broken up by a yowling sound, Georgia having managed to overbalance Nyoom’s cat tree, and a half dozen kittens scurried away from where it had been felled in a mad panic.

Cisco got several pictures for the Metakitties social media page.

* * *

 

“So, I’ve been thinking.” Barry said, poking through some of the files from the bank and Wells-who-Wasn’t’s lawyers. Caitlin was doing inventory of her medical supplies, watching carefully as Eddie attempted to heal one of his own wounds—just a scrape, thankfully—before coming over and tending to it with an antiseptic wipe. In the Cortex, Cisco had his guitar on his lap, playing for Fuzzwhump, Goldie, and Scrap, who watched his fingers intently.

“About?” Caitlin asked, offering Eddie the box of gauze she’d been sorting.

“Well, Wells—Eobard—he left us kind of a lot of money.  I think Gideon had something to do with it, but there’s a lot from stock markets and things. Plus that JL Gideon fund thing…and, well, I mean, a lot of people got hurt in the accelerator explosion, but he got it covered up—that it was his fault, so there were a lot of hospital bills and things that didn’t get covered as much as they could have been. Things like that.” Barry held up a stack of files, thumbing through them absently. “I think we should help.”

Caitlin blinked, then nodded. “Ok. Let’s do it.”

Cisco set down the guitar, started walking over, and returned to prevent Scrap from attempting to climb inside. “Caitlin, take your daughter.”

“Her what now?” Ronnie asked coming in with takeout. “Oh, Scrap. Thought I might’ve missed something else while I was Martin. While Martin was me?” he snagged Scrap from Cisco, then let the kitten down on Caitlin’s shoulder. Caitlin gave him a look, but he couldn’t help but laugh.

Barry passed the files to Cisco, beeline for the takeout, Chinese from Mama Chow’s, just in time to head Nyoom off. Divvying it up, they gathered around the table, looking at the files, occasionally checking the computers.

“Oh…” Caitlin nodded at the file she’d gotten, her fingers a little greasy from attempting to wrangle a potsticker. “Cisco, look up, um, Jefferson Jackson. He was only a kid.”

“On it,” Cisco typed one-handed, the other keeping Fuzzwhump from eating his dinner. “He’s only three years younger than me, Caitlin, he’s hardly a kid. Oh. Wait. Oh, man. You’re not gonna like this. He was up for a bunch of college scholarships and lost them all because the explosion messed up his knee. In and out of the hospital, still a lot of bills, single mom and…”

“What?” Eddie had long since given up on pretending he was disappointed in them for hacking hospital records.

 “He’s been back in the hospital for the last month and a half. Getting worse. He’s dying.” At the word ‘dying’ Fuzzwhump struggled free of Cisco’s grip and butted her head against his chest, mewing softly until he shushed her.

“Not if we can do something about it,” Caitlin decided.  “Cisco, see if you can get the rest of his files from the hospital, call Felicity if you have to.” She picked up her handbag, scooting Scrap into it.

“Where are you going?” several voices asked at once.

“To the hospital,” she said flatly. “We brought Barry here and saved him, I’m going to offer the Jacksons the same. If the accelerator caused this—if it’s his powers—we might be able to stop it.”

* * *

 

With Caitlin busy on that front, and Cisco busy looking into hospital records, Ronnie joined Martin downstairs in his little office. “Ronald, look.” The professor had a computer screen in front of him, a map of the city lit up on several dozen places.

“Ronnie, Professor,” Ronnie corrected out of habit. “what’s it supposed to be?”

“Well, what with our guest in the pipeline, not to mention Atom Smasher and Sand—what was it? Demon?—I thought it prudent to see if we could find whatever gateway they came through, that Zoom creature used. Cisco suggested tracking the exotic matter, and well…”

“Oh.” Ronnie frowned and looked at the map again. “Oh! That’s... that’s not a gate.”

“No, it’s fifty-two.” Martin looked giddy. “ We’ve done it! We’ve proved the multiverse theory correct. This changes—well, this changes everything, the world as we know it—“

“Only if we let everyone know,” Ronnie said. “Star Labs is one thing, Joe, Eddie, that’s all one thing. But maybe that other world, maybe they should all be left alone, you know? I mean…that kind of thing doesn’t seem like it’d end well. Especially if the military got involved, on either end.”

“You’re probably right. Still, look where the biggest one is.” Martin pointed. “Right here in our basement. If we can find a way to stabilize the breach—I’ll show you where it is, it’s quite something—then we could send our visitors home.”

Ronnie nodded. “Good. I don’t like the way that Jay-guy looks at Caitlin or Cisco. He’s hiding a lot more than we know, I can tell. I mean, I’m not Bear, but still. Something’s really fishy.”

Martin nodded, a little absently. “Yes, it’s rather troubling. But the sooner we can find a way to stabilize and send home, the sooner we can find a way to close the breaches for good. As sad as losing that connection to another world would be, it probably is for the best. Well, why don’t we get started trying to puzzle this out? Two heads, after all.”

Ronnie nodded, following the professor, laptop under one arm. It wouldn’t be as easy as following a premade blueprint, even for something like a time machine, but they’d do it. It couldn’t be harder than everything else they’d managed in the last year, even with cats underfoot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things are calm and happy...for now....


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> friendly reminder that is is not just an AU with cats but an AU where barry genuinely cares about his friends, aka Flash writers meet me in the pit

 

With the breach in the basement stabilized, there had been a short discussion about what to do about Presumajay. Barry wanted to send him home and be done with it—he hadn’t been terribly helpful with anything but murder suggestions. Cisco was inclined to agree, although he wanted to know more about the other earth, first. In the end, though, Jay(??) had gone. Goldie had sat in his empty box and trilled happily. She had never gotten over her intense dislike of the man.  Ronnie, too, was glad to see him gone, though he could feel that Martin was disappointed they had not learned more. Still, it wasn’t like they’d closed the breach, or even any of them, so they could always learn more later if it came to that.

Between waiting for whatever disaster came next with the metahumans and the cats, always getting into something, Caitlin had devoted her time to their patient. Jefferson Jackson’s widowed mother had been mistrustful at the sudden generosity of STAR Labs, though Caitlin had worked hard to reassure her, and Barry had given her a speech about how STAR had saved his life, and now that he owned part of it, he wanted to help others. She’d agreed, and Jefferson—Jax—had been brought to a newly remodeled med bay, with another entrance besides the cortex. Clarissa Stein had taken to speaking to the other woman often, While Cisco chatted with Jax when he was awake, usually accompanied by Ginger or one of the STAR Labs cats in addition to Fuzzwhump.

Three days after bringing Jax to STAR, Caitlin spotted the anomaly.

“His cells, his DNA…Ronnie, Professor, it looks like yours. Look at these patterns.” She gestured at the oversized computer monitor, overlaying three separate images. “so…I mean, on the one hand, it’s very bad, because his DNA is—well, it’s not stable. But on the other hand, I think I know what will stabilize him.” She winced slightly.

“Well, what is it?” Martin asked.

“Becoming part of Firestorm.” Caitlin held up her hand. I know it’s a lot to ask from you. And from him. But it might be the only way to save his life. He’s…he’s getting worse.”

“I suppose I’ll go speak to them, then,” Martin stood up, stretching. It was getting late. “If he wants to do this, he should know what it entails.”

“I’ll come with you.” Ronnie scooped Ginger off the floor, the fat orange tomcat purring at the extra heat from Ronnie’s touch. Thankfully, he did not spontaneously burst into flames again, having apparently learned his lesson.

They left, and Caitlin set to tidying things up while Cisco worked on the forest of cat trees off to the side. Scrap purred, almost vibrating against Caitlin’s arm from her sleeve pocket, and Fuzzwhump and Moose clambered around on the carpet covered posts. Suddenly, Nyoom raced in, yowling. She often did so as a warning, but a glance at the computers showed Barry’s vitals were fine.  Two seconds later, Fuzzwhump leaped at the man coming in through the door. Someone screamed. Cisco raised his arms in selfdefense as Harrison Wells stumbled back, Fuzzwhump making valiant effort to tear out his throat through the dark turtleneck he wore.

In a flash of lighting—Barry’s gold—the yearling cat was back in Cisco’s arms, and Harrison Wells was cursing.

“What the hell?” Cisco demanded, staying well behind Barry and nuzzling the top of Fuzz’s head with his chin. She squirmed, stiff and puffed up with tiny rage.

“What was _that thing,”_ Wells demanded, and Cisco noticed he had a gun.

“Calm down,” Barry held out both hands. “Uh, Dr. Wells, this is Cisco and Fuzzwhump. Cisco, Fuzzwhump, Nyoom, Fel—No, please don’t.” The kittens not currently cuddling Cisco had surrounded Harrison, either out of curiosity or anger. Probably both. Barry did not try very hard to shoo them away. Even with superspeed, herding cats was a fruitless activity. “This is Harrison wells from earth two. He literally just saved my life from a giant shark thing.”

“Uh, that’s great,” Cisco’s voice squeaked, his heart still racing. “And we will talk about Jaws later. I’m sure he can tell us lots of things from the pipeline, away from me. And away from that gun, put that down, like, right now. No guns in my lab.” Harry did not put down the gun. Barry took it from him.

“Fuzz—that’s a cat? These are—Explain,” Harry demanded.

“No, you explain,” Barry said. “How did you get here? Did Zoom send you and that…Shark guy?”

“No, don’t be stupid,” Dr. Wells snapped. Nyoom hissed, waving her tail at an alarming rate so that lightning sparked along it. Wells sneezed violently, and took a step backwards. “I came to help you stop Zoom, because clearly someone has too, and—“ he cut off as Firestorm entered, fire around their hands.

“Get away from them.” They said, and Harry backed up again, tripping over a conveniently placed Moose.

“No he’s not that Wells, he’s not Thawne,” Barry said. “Nyoom? Nyoom, Listen to me, go get Goldie.”

Nyoom waved her fluffy tail, then started to lick at her own side, patently ignoring Barry.

“Nyoom, if you go get Bear or Goldie, I’ll bring you an entire tuna.”

The cat considered, then took off, careful to dig her claws into Dr. Wells’ chest as she sprang off him and out into the hallway.

Barry took the opportunity to “escort” Wells to the pipeline.

“It’s for your protection as much as anything else,” he explained. “The cats may take some convincing.”

~~ break ~~

At Jitters, Cisco downed his second Flash Espresso. The less he slept, the better everything seemed to be. He could pass the—the visions, the vibes—off as just minor lapses in sanity, the result of being tired, and the worse dreams at night—Eobard shredding his heart, or nightmares where The cats weren’t enough, where Fuzz hadn’t been there to save Eddie and the black hole destroyed the entire city—were rarer if he stayed up until he blacked out. The Barista, Kendra, new to town, had made a fuss over Fuzzwhump and Scrap, giving them each a little cream, and on her break had pulled out her phone to show Caitlin, Barry, and Cisco pictures of her own cat.

“Sheik,” she said, looking fondly at the torti kitten. “She’s two, and a terror.”

For their part, Team Flash cooed over the picture, and recommended the petshop where they’d first gotten kitten supplies if she ever needed good quality toys and treats. Kendra had written the name down, thanked them, and gotten back to her line.

“So. Wells 2.0,” Barry said hesitantly.

“That’s too cool a nickname for him. I’m gonna call him Harry,” Cisco muttered.

“Fine, Harry,” Barry corrected. “He says he wants to help, but… I mean, Jay or whoever’s idea of Help was murder,  so…”

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but if he got here through the breach… even if we send him back he could just come back. and if we let him run around the city, I mean, someone’s bound to notice and think the dead murderer is alive,” Caitlin pointed out.

“Pipeline it is, Cait, you can be on meal duty, good talk,” Cisco said brightly, followed by a rather piercing pain in his head. Blue light practically blinded him as a vision overtook him, the bank, his old bank, a woman in black and white, people huddling…

“Cisco? You ok?” Caitlin was leaning closer, Fuzzwhump butting her head into his belly and mewling softly.

“I’m…yeah, um, Barry, I’ll explain later, you need to get to the bank on 14th, I’ll call Eddie and Joe.”

Barry didn’t hesitate, even with all the questions sending off alarms in his head.

~~ break~~

“Look at it this way, Nyoom can be your seeing eye cat for the next few hours.” Eddie offered. The metahuman, Linda Park’s doppelganger, had blinded Barry and escaped.  Harry had insisted they hunt her down right then, but with Barry’s newfound ability to walk into not only walls but desks, chairs, and people with his face even at normal speed, that really wasn’t wise.

Firestorm was on it instead, with Jax eager to actually walk again, even if it was a little unnerving. Ronnie stayed behind, advising the kid through earpieces Cisco had built to “just ignore the old guy, you’re doing fine.” Martin had grumbled about not making _chremsel_ again anytime soon, and Ronnie apologized instantly. Jax had laughed, until Martin and Ronnie had insisted that _chremsel_ was nothing to laugh about.

Barry grumbled, sitting back on the hospital bed Caitlin had ordered him to rest in, Nyoom planting her paws on his chest and purring.

“What if this…Linda Two tries what Rothstein did? What if she goes after the real Linda? Er—Our Linda?” Barry reached a hand up to his eyes, Caitlin pulled it down.

“Rest. I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Caitlin looked to Eddie. “Could we put a protective detail on her, maybe?”

“Me and Patty will handle it,” Eddie promised, walking to the hallway with Bear riding his shoulders.  “I won’t tell her everything, just that the Flash passed me a tip that a new Meta might attack CCPN. It’s true enough for Bear, isn’t it, buddy?”

As he left, he noticed Joe looking at his phone, frowning.

“Uh, Joe? Something wrong?”

“…” Joe opened his mouth and failed to say anything, then sighed. “Yes, but it’s personal and private, and I need to work things out before everyone and their mo—and their cat knows.”

Eddie nodded. “As long as it’s not something dangerous, or something that you really really should tell Iris before she discovers it from our cats again.”

Joe nodded, and stuffed the phone in his pocket, and Eddie went on his way.

The day wore on. Caitlin thought Barry’s sight would return in a few hours, by the evening for certain, and that seemed to be holding true. Clarissa brought her crocheting, and Cisco watched her, tinkering with some bits of wire, teasing it into small cat toys. Fuzzwhump still clung to him, wholly unwilling to let go, her eyes locked on the screen where the feed from Harry’s pipeline box sat, and occasionally growling. It was almost comical, given her size, the smallest Metakitty aside from Scrap, or possibly one of the adopted out ones that they hadn’t seen in a while, but everyone was still just a little bit too on edge to laugh at that.

Laughing at Nyoom grooming Barry’s hair, though, was perfectly acceptable.

~~ break ~~

Bear was a hit at CCPN. Linda hadn’t even questioned Eddie and Patty being there (nor had anyone else) for a solid twenty minutes.   When she finally did, they were as vague as possibly to avoid causing a panic and because outright lies would not be permitted. They chatted with Iris a bit, who for her part asked to interview them about their work with the CCPD’s task force for Metahumans.

Things were going fairly smoothly when a sudden burst of light physically smashed open the front doors. Patty reached for the souped up Taser at her him, a gift from Cisco. Eddie hesitated, lining himself up between the intruder and Iris and Linda before reaching for his own weapon. When another blast of light sent everyone rushing past him for the exit, he lost his grip on it, instead drawing on the blue flame that came easily to his fingertips.

Several people yelped. Goldie and Bear took up defensive maneuvers—in this case, launching themselves at the attacker’s feet. That, combined with Eddie’s own flame, was enough to give Iris time to hurry Linda out the side door, and Patty covered their escape.

“What do you want with Ms. Park?” Patty shouted, now that the three of them were the only ones in the room.

“Her life. My own,” she said, sharply, hunching her shoulders like a wounded animal.  Eddie cringed as she spoke, sounding exactly like Linda. He hoped that Patty didn’t notice, or would brush it off as just another weird Central City thing, like the giant man-shark she insisted she’d seen. Except that Barry had seen it too, so, ok, bad example, but still. “You can’t stop this, you can’t—“

“Try us.” Eddie said. “CCPD, you’re under arrest. Put your hands on your head.”

“No.” She fired, and Eddie reacted on instinct, hoping it would work. The blue flame collided with the shiny white helmet Linda2 wore, and her shot went wide, blasting several computers. With another burst of light, aimed floorwards, she was gone.

When Eddie finished blinking dark spots out of his vision, all that was left was her helmet, knocked off in her bid for freedom, and a very confused and upset Linda, Iris trailing behind her.

~~ break ~~

“What do you mean, we can’t find her?” Barry asked, still a touch blind.

“Dude, I’m doing what I can, I’m not a god.” Cisco said, still typing. “ Facial recognition is great, but 1, it is night time and 2: it’s hard to hell if it’s Dr Light in the shots or our Linda. Your Linda? Our Linda.”

“I know how to find her,” Harry said, unhelpfully from his computer screen. “Let me show you.”

“We need to find her,” Eddie said, when everyone shared a look. “Zoom may have sent her to kill you put there could be more we don’t know.”

“He’s got a point,” Cisco said. Everyone stared. “I know you won’t let him do anything, and Goldie and Bear proved he’s not working for Zoom, right?”

“Yeah, “ Iris started.

“Then we should let him. If he’s full of crap, Barry can catch him.”

Fuzzwhump was not happy about the turn of events that led to Harry standing in the cortex, especially not when he picked up Light’s helmet.

“Any DNA on it would just lead to our Linda, and anyway we don’t have a DNA tracker or anything like that, Mr. Science-fiction World.” Ronnie pointed out.

“Don’t be stupid,” Harry said. Iris mouthed a “strike one” at Caitlin, who nodded in agreement, keeping a very firm grip on Scrap. “All we need is for him to use his powers.” He pointed at Cisco, who took on the look of a deer in headlights.

“I don’t—“ he couldn’t finish the sentence. Fuzzwhump started to growl again. “I don’t know how to make them work, I can’t.”

“I really do have to do everything myself,” Harry moved, and Barry’s sight was still too blurry to make out more than motion. He lunged forward to stop Harry’s movement and missed as Light’s helmet struck home over Cisco’s heart. Cisco collapsed, and Fuzzwhump sprang into action, teeth and all four sets of claws bared, yowling with all the fury her tiny body contained.  Shortly thereafter, Scrap escaped Caitlin’s grip, and the rest of the lurking felines rushed to the attack. Barry was only just able to get Harry back into the pipeline, his face a mask of blood from tiny scratches.

“That was too far. If you behave, Caitlin might give you a first aid kit. Don’t make me regret not letting the cats maul you to death.” Barry said, vibrating slightly with anger. Harry’s face was puffy, no doubt some allergic reaction, but his vitals were in the normal range, so Barry elected to let him deal with it himself.

Cisco was sitting up when Barry returned, dazed, clutching a frantic Fuzzwhump.

“Bright side,” he managed. “I know where our pal Linda 2 is.”

“Are you ok?” Barry asked, echoing the others.

“Just—gimme a sec. get her first. Train station, north bound.”

Barry took off, Nyoom just ahead of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments make the kittens happy. and me happy. please love me.


	6. chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is so late and also not really edit but I hope it existing makes up for that.

With Dr. Light safely ensconced in a pipeline cell, and Harry’s pipeline cell muted and sent deep into the bowels of the pipeline—as close as they could get to Joe’s suggestion of ‘the pits of hell’ as they could get without murder, the team gathered in the cortex. Cisco was, as usual, covered with cats, Fuzzwhump cradled in his arms, guarding his chest.

“Cisco?” Barry asked. “What was that?”

Cisco sucked in a deep breathe. “I...I don’t think the dreams I was having were just dreams, or connected to Fuzz after all. The ones last spring. I—I kept having them, only…not things that got erased. Sometimes they just hit, out of nowhere, things happening…”

“Metahuman powers?” Iris asked gently. “That’s how you knew where my dad and Patty were, and the bank robbery…”

“Yeah.” Cisco squeezed Fuzzwhump a little tighter. She squeaked, twisting in his arms to press her head into his armpit. Her tail twitched.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Caitlin asked quietly. “I mean...if they were hurting you, we could have helped…” she looked stricken at the thought that Cisco might have been afraid to tell them.

  
Cisco shrugged. “I just--I was going to but...Thawne gave me these powers, and he was...he was a killer, a monster, and I don’t want anything to do with the “great destiny” he had planned.”

  
Barry extended a hand to him, and Fuzzwhump tensed but allowed it. “Technically he gave me my powers, too, didn’t he? How you got them…” he shrugged as expressively as he could with Nyoom balanced like a shawl across the back of his neck. “We’re here for you.”

  
Cisco nodded. “Thanks. ...so...what do we do now?”

  
“Well,” Barry looked around. “We have Linda-2. She’s not exactly Zoom’s number one fan, maybe we could get her to help us? We could Lure Zoom into a trap?”

“Right,” Caitlin shook her head. “We all know how well the last trap against an evil speedster went.”

“Thawne had all those cameras though,” Joe pointed out, but he conceded with a wince.

“And Zoom somehow knew to send that world’s Linda,” Caitlin countered. “It’s too much of a risk.”

“We have to, Caitlin,” Barry said. “It may be the only way to get close to him.”

“We’re not using any Linda as bait,” Caitlin said. Iris nodded.

“We could use Dr. Evil the sequel,” Cisco jerked his thumb at the screen, where Harry was shouting, muted, at the camera in his pipeline cell.

“I feel like that would go poorly,” Iris said. “but better him than Linda, even Bank-Robber-from-a-dumb-scifi-movie Linda.”

“Hey,” Cisco gave her a look. “Sci-fi isn’t dumb.”

“Some of them are,” Iris shot back, playfully. “Anyway no Linda bait. Unless Dr. Light wants to, but even then…”

“We don’t have a lot of options,” Caitlin rubbed Scrap’s tiny ears. “I mean, we could go after Atom Smasher at IH, but… that’s fairly illegal. I mean we could try, but—“

“Me,” Barry said.

“I’m gonna pretend you have brain cells and did not just volunteer to be bait,” Iris raised her eyebrow.

“It makes the most sense,” Barry said. “This Zoom guy wants me dead. So...we let him think he’s won, and then we get him.”

“Get him how?” Joe demanded. “No, not without something solid. Cisco, maybe some kind of…” he hesitated. “Cold gun. I know it’s the last thing you ever want to make, but we’re up against an evil speedster, and that’s all I can think of that ever stood a chance at slowing Barry or Thawne.”

“Ray’s Nanites,” Cisco murmured, but then he nodded. “A cold gun. Or maybe like grenades. Or  something with a serum, a cold serum…but…” he looked around. “Are you sure you trust me to? I just lied to you about what I am.”

“Bullshit,” Caitlin snapped, and Scrap peeped from her place in Caitlin’s sleeve. “You didn’t tell us you had powers, so what, that’s not what you are. You’re our friend. Make whatever you think  we can use.”

Cisco nodded. “I’ll get on that.”

“Not yet you won’t I need to make sure you’re really ok after all that. Med bay, Now.” Caitlin pointed with her free arm. Cisco went without hesitation.

* * *

 

Patty and Eddie were on guard at Linda’s house, well fed on the labors of her stress baking. She was busying herself in the kitchen with yet another batch of scones. The remains of the first batch had been devoured under the combined efforts of the two detectives and Goldie.

“That was…something.” Patty nodded at Eddie’s hands. Eddie shrugged, fiddling with his pen. They’d gotten all the reports from the CCPN employees, and it was certainly the same Meta who’d attacked at the bank, but they were no closer, officially, to an answer for why she’d attacked Linda. Unofficially, Eddie suspected Team Flash had a theory, but he couldn’t really up and leave.

“Um,” Patty started again. “I didn’t know that—“

“That my powers were offensive?” Eddie asked “Not just glowy blue light?”

It was her turn to shrug. “I mean it makes sense, fire and all…”

“Look, if you’re not comfortable working with me because I’m a meta,” Eddie started. He’d had three partners bail on him back in Keystone, cut him loose to find someone else they worked with. It was nothing new, not really, although before it had just been because of petty grudges against his last name. It still hurt, but Eddie was used to it.

Goldie planted her front paws on his shoulders and pressed her nose to his, as she always did when he felt down.  She twisted, rubbing her cheek against his and turned so his mouth and nose brushed the fur of her neck and gave Patty a piercing Look, the Judgement Gaze that cats had perfected centuries prior.

Patty flinched, but almost imperceptibly. “No. I need to get over it.  It’s irrational prejudice and there’s no place for that on the force.  I’m sorry. I do trust you, Detective Thawne.”  
Goldie merely purred, and that was enough for Eddie. He smiled at her.

“Eddie,” he corrected. “We’re partners. You can call me Eddie.”

“Ok,” she nodded. “So, what’s next?”

“I’d like to get a second pair to keep an eye on Linda. If you want to look into the forensics report, maybe check out the residue from the meta’s lightblasts, that might help us find –“

“A way to counteract them,” Patty nodded eagerly. “Yeah.”

“I’m going to talk to the department’s consultant, Cisco Ramon. He may have something that can help.” Eddie scratched Goldie’s ears.

“Sounds good. I’ll call, erm…Officer Whitesmen and her partner. They owe me a favor, and they’re between cases.”

“Great. I’ll talk to you in the morning, with Joe?” Eddie stood. “I’ll let Linda know.”

Patty nodded again, and reached out to Goldie, who graciously allowed the woman to pet her.

* * *

 

Joe slipped away from the group as the kids continued to argue over who was going to bait (as far as he was concerned, the answer was None Of Them). He did not notice that as he’d gotten into his car, a mottled shadow had slipped through the closed back door until he was well on his way to the bar that was his destination. A pair of bright eyes gleamed in his rearview mirror and Joe had tensed until he recognized the outline of Schrodinger. Too late to turn around and drop the cat back at Star, he left the cat in the car with Orders to “stay put.”

Schrodi, of course, ignored him, and followed him inside.

“Joseph,” a woman’s voice said. “I’m glad you—“

“You need to leave.” Joe said. “Francine, I don’t know what you came back but we made our lives. You made yours.”

She blinked. “I..I know. But there are things you and—and our daughter need to know. Please.”

Schrodi tuned out the conversation, sneaking through table legs until he was comfortably settled underneath the stool of the Big man, able to paw at his shoes in peace. Or at least, until someone pointed at him, and the Big man had to get out his shiny metal (Badge, Faulkner said it was called) then they all had to go. Schrodi blinked. He’d been having fun with all the new smells. The woman offered him her hand, and he leaned into it. She smelled familiar, like the room at STAR where the Nyoomman had to spend time after he did stupid things and got hurt, and under that she smelled like Sad and Scared, mostly sad, and far under that she smelled like Ris. He purred at her.

( _No be scared. Safe with Big man, safe with me. No be hurting. The Soft one will make you all better.)_

“I..I think your cat likes me.” Francine murmured, bending awkwardly. Her breath was short, but she scratched his ears nicely.

“He’s not mine. He just followed me in.” Joe closed his eyes. “I don’t want you telling Iris. I need to be the one to tell her I lied.  If she wants to see you, she’s her own person. But you left her, it’s her right to not want to see you.”

Francine took a breath sharply, and after a moment nodded. “I understand,” she said, in a voice that indicated she did not exactly, but didn’t want to argue it. “Thank you for meeting me. It was…good to see you again.”

“Good night, Francine.” Joe’s firm voice was not wholly unkind.

* * *

 

“You need to let me help you,” Harry insisted. Dr. Light had pointedly refused to help and followed through on that by escaping.

“We literally do not need to do that,” Iris said. “And yes, I mean Literally as in literally. Now you can go home to your world or you can stay in the shut up box but—“

“He has my daughter!” Harry burst out. Iris looked at Barry. Barry looked at Caitlin, who looked at Cisco, who successfully attempted to prevent Fuzzwhump from committing murder and made no comment.

“Well, you should have said that from the start,” Caitlin said.

“I didn’t know if I could trust—“

“And yet we’re supposed to automatically trust you?” Cisco snorted.

“We’ll beat Zoom, we’ll save your daughter, but until you earn our trust, you’re staying in there.” Barry said firmly.

“Then what will you do to lure Zoom out, hmm? You need me.”

“I don’t think we do.” Iris chewed her lip. “Guys, we were thinking about why Light might want to help us, but…his kidnapping her didn’t just mess with her. Linda…”

“Might want to help.” Barry winced. “Do you really think she will?”

“Can’t hurt to ask. We’ll want Eddie on board anyway.” Iris pulled out her phone, heading upstairs. Goldie remained below with Caitlin and scrap, the better to find out what exactly Harry knew about Zoom and his daughter’s capture.

* * *

 

Nyoom was bored. They’d been down at the docks for ages, and everything smelled like fish (good) but was also wet (bad) and then there hadn’t even been anything to chase even though Faulkner and Georgia and her human had promised. She swished her tail, ready to pounce on the Nyoomman’s boot again, when her ears pricked up. Something was very very bad and wrong and then there was a monster in the middle of the room, holding her human by the neck.

 _(Nooo!)_ she leaped before she yowled, but like the red that her human wore, the monster’s black was hard against her mouth and would not break open. He kicked and she went flying, and when she got to her paws again, her fur fluffed in anger and worry, both were gone.

She did not wait even to look around for her littermates and the other humans. Instead she followed the lightning she could feel in her whiskers, crashing outside and racing down the streets, ducking under cars-monsters and knocking bikes off course. Nyoom chased after the blue and gold until she knew she could reach out and bite it and still she pushed, her pawpads burning.

The Monster held her human by his scruff, and Nyoom hissed. Humans were not supposed to be held like that. She could smell familiar humans under the stink of fear and blood, prey-smell. Nyoom did not like to think of her humans as prey, that was wrong, that was backwards.

( _Let my human go)_ she hissed, hackles raised and ears flat, but the monster only said more things that she could not understand, things that vibrated in her bones and hurt, and then he was running again. ( _Get back here! Rude!)_

She took off again, feeling the wind ruffle against her fur. This route was familiar, the was the Lis Tion, were Nyooman and Puppy and the Big man worked, where Havoc’s human worked and Raoul’s.  She spent lots of time there, she knew all the best ways in.

All the humans were standing, looking up at the upstairs where she and Raoul and Bear hunted for spiders, and the Monster was there, glowing with lightning that was wrong, it wasn’t yellow or white or even red, it was blue and she hated it and then all the  people took out their guns. She knew what guns were, but her Nyoomman wasn’t like Havoc. He might die. ( _No, stop, I will fight him, you, put my human down!)_ her cry was ignored, but the monster caught all the metal and dropped it on the ground and left _again._

Nyoom _hurt_ she was tired but she had to keep going. STAR came into view, and Nyoom’s whiskers twitched as she barreled in just in time to hear a crunch like the sound of a mouse’s bones breaking in her jaws.

She crashed into the Monster’s back and he dropped her human as he stumbled. She felt something brush her above-eye whiskers and dropped, hunched as protectively as she could between the monster and her human as Sco hefted a weapon.

The monster ran. Nyoom made it three steps after him, then four back, collapsing next to her human, pushing her head against his cheek. ( _Fuzz, Fuzz halp please—)_

 _“_ Shhh,” the Soft one said. “Nyoom, he’s alive, you did so Good.”

~~ break~~

When Barry woke up, hours later, he was surrounded by his friends. “What—happened.”

“Cisco shot Zoom with a prototype of the speed dampener after Nyoom distracted him.” Eddie said.

“It was bad, but you’re already healing,” Caitlin said with a small smile. Barry noticed the bloody gloves in the wastebin.

“Thanks,” he murmured, and then noticed Nyoom on the bed, atop the blankets. “Oh, no—I—“ he tried to sit. Iris adjusted the bed. Nyoom startled awake and started kneading the blankets and Barry’s thighs. At least he assumed she did.

“I can’t feel my legs…” he whispered.

* * *

 

It was well past Dawn when Caitlin finally reached her little house, Scrap balanced on her shoulder. Joe and Cisco had sworn in front of Goldie and Bear to call if they needed her and sent her home to sleep after the emergency surgery that she hoped had been in time to repair the damage to Barry’s spine. She told herself it had to be. Dr. Wells—Thawne—had had his back broken in multiple places, she’d seen the xrays herself. Barry’d heal, eventually. He had too.

She needed Ronnie, but he had gone with Stein and Jax to work of training, visiting on of the professor’s friends. While she was glad they were out of harm’s way from Zoom, she needed Ronnie’s comfort, the safety of his presence. She also needed a long, hot bath and a long rest, exhausted to the marrow of her bones.

As she fumbled for her house keys, Scrap suddenly tensed, growling low, and sprang at something behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember I love your comments also next chapter is gonna be Fun Times muahaha


	7. chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> retelling the Grodd episode when one has negated everything that happened in the grodd episode is gonna be Fun enjoy the grodd episode sans all canom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guest stars! Canon has no power here!

Scrap had a very long list of Things she Did Not Approve Of, just as any of her littermates and colonymates did. She was fairly certain that their humans, as silly as they were, also had such lists, even if they weren’t as well thought out as a cat’s was by nature. Even before she blinked open her eyes, she could tell that several of the things and experiences on that list were here.  She twitched her whiskers. Her paw-pads were cold, and her whole body ached, like how it had for just a second when she’d gotten sparked by the Nyoomman’s lightning, or Nyoom’s, but worse. What if it was the Wheelman? He made lightning too, but he was dead. He was supposed to be dead. There was another Nyoomman, though, she had seen him catching their Nyoomman like a hunter catching a mouse. But no, it had not been him, she had smelled familiar things before…

She twitched her whiskers again, opening her mouth a little to let scents flood in. Panic sent her scrambling instinctively to her paws, peering around. She could not smell her Soft One at all, but that did not mean everything was unfamiliar.  She smelled the cleaning things kept away from kittens, the sour taint of fear, a stale human scent she could not place, old blood.  These were prey smells, bad smells. Smells for the Soft One’s place at STAR but without the good smells that went with it.

She scooted back, fur fluffed up against the chill, skidding into a wall. It was a small room, with a light that was too bright and too cold. There was nowhere to hide but Scrap did not want to hide, even if some part of cat instinct said she should. In one wall there was a big dark window near a narrow door. If she were like Schrodi or Peanut Butter of Felix, she could just walk through it, but she wasn’t. Scrap felt a pang at the thought that she had never learned to open doors by curling around nobs, but then realized that there was no knob anyway. Besides, that was for when you didn’t want to break things, and Scrap wanted very few things more than to break things. Whoever had put her in here had taken the Soft One and she was going to destroy _everything_ to get her back.

She growled low in her throat. The Soft one always purred a bit, the human purring, when she did that, like it was silly, but Scrap meant it. She shifted, stretching her legs out and letting them extend and thicken. Her teeth and claws grew longer and her shoulders widened and her whiskers bristled at her nose, paws, and above her eyes. Newly imbiggened ears swiveling, her growl was deeper, and she moved, silent and graceful. Putting all her weight back on her powerful launches, she sprang forward at the window, bracing for the crash of glass.

It did not shatter, which it should have. Scrap hissed at the offending glass-or-whatever-it-was, then went back to growling. She was ready to _go._ Surely the window couldn’t withstand another blow. She’d seen their colony-mate, Havoc—as good as a littermate even if he shared no blood  with the rest—smash into a bit of glass and it had broken. Sco had worried and told the Soft One.

The Soft One. Where was she? What if she was in a cold-bright room like this one, with not Scrap or any other cat to protect her? She was not as good as Puppy or Nyoomman or the Shout-shoot man at fighting. Scrap rammed the glass again with a flying leap.

( _Soft! Soft! I come! I find, I save! Where are? Soft!)_

The glass did not break, again. _(Rude! Break! Break!)_ Scrap batted at the window with claws extended, rewarded by only tiny surface dents.

She fell back and thought hard. She was not as good at thinking and human cleverness as some of the others, but she wasn’t as bad at it as some of her colonymates either. _(Freda, Freda, Georgia, need help, help now)_ It was hard to focus, but she tried. You-Rita had gotten messages back, but no answer came.

Pausing, she gave a still aching paw a lick, and rammed at the window again. It didn’t even shudder. Her growl faded some. That had hurt, and it was _hard_ to stay so big while she was hurting and tired and hungry. Whoever had taken her here had done so before she got her Dinner-Treat-Salmon-dinner, here kitty kitty kitty. Reluctantly, she shrank down again, relishing the pressure as she returned to her usual size.

A light flickered in the window, and then another, and suddenly she could see people.

“Extraordinary,” one said, loud enough even for her small ears to hear.  Scrap knew that word. If one of her humans had said it, she would have purred and preened, it was a good word then. But this was not her Soft one, or any of the good humans.  “Truly.  How does it gather the mass to grow like that?”

“We’re not sure,” some else said, and though Scrap did not know enough to understand all the words, she knew that voice.  That was the man who had been in charge when bad people had attacked the Soft one and her tom. Scrap dug tiny, useless claws into the floor and yowled _( Will kill you, Will! Where is Soft? Where is my human?)_

“Loud for such a little thing,” the first human said. “Do you want us to wait to start the tests, or--?”

“It can wait until you’ve finished with the other subjects.”

Scrap was again less than certain what they were saying, but she knew it was probably bad. ( _Georgie, Freda, help!)_ she thought fiercely again

This time, there was an answer, but not the one she had expected.

 **Scrap sister?** The voice in her head was not a kitten voice. It was not even familiar. Scrap flattened her ears against her skull and hissed.

 **Scrap sister.** Came the voice again, and this time an image of….

( _Apricot?)_ Scrap yelped. She had not seen the other kitten since she had gone away with…well, with whatever a Grodd was.

**Am Grodd. Apicot here—not here. Scrap sister hurt?**

Scrap clawed at the floor again. In the picture the Grodd-voice had sent, Apricot had looked very small and scared and enough was enough. ( _Not hurt. Time go now?)_

 **Cannot get to Apicot.** The Grodd voice was angry. Scrap lashed her tail, and  then stretched until she was big. She took a deliberate step toward the door and let herself crash as if she had stepped into a nice puddle of sunshine and suddenly needed a nap. That usually made the Soft one or Sco peak in.

It worked.

The door opened and Scrap jolted to her feet and skidded between the human’s legs, tearing down the white, bright hallway.  She hit a wall and bounced off, straining her nose. There, the smell of kitten-fear and wet fur. Stopping at a door, she shifted again, pushing back the exhaustion, reared back on her hind paws, and crashed down on the handle.

The door splintered at the lock and Scrap bounded inside, where small, mottled orange and white Apricot yowled from a cage in the wall. There were several other cages, some full, some not. Scrap made short work of them. Whatever that stupid window had been made of, it hadn’t been used in here.

 _(Scrap?)_ Apricot mewed, licking at whatever of Scrap she could reach (mostly paws)

( _It me. It me and angry. Where is your…Grodd? We go.)_

 _(This way.)_ Apricot led the way down another corridor, but stopped with a fearful hiss as Scrap saw several humans with metal things block another door.

Scrap was getting pretty sick of the humans here. She flashed her claws, and waited two seconds to see if they would run.

They did not run, so she slashed out, instead, knocking them aside like kitten toys on a desk. Some of them scrambled away. Some of them did not. Scrap was not particularly bothered by that.

Apricot crawled over one and stole a shiny card from the human’s pocket and batted it to Scrap.

 _(What is?)_ Scrap sniffed distastefully.

_(Hold at door, door go beep.)_

_(Doors go beep for humans. We are cats)_

_(Doors do not know this. Doors are dumb.)_

Scrap stuck a claw into the card and hissed at the door, scrabbling with the one paw until there was a soft beep. She sniffed.

_(could have just hit door.)_

_(could have)_ Apricot agreed helpfully, tearing inside. She purred wildly at the big furry black arm that scooped her up, licking at the not-human that must be Grodd.

 _(We go?)_ Scrap asked, wanting to find her human _. (must find the Soft)_

Grodd frowned. **Looking for human prisoner?**

 _(Yes)_ Scrap lashed her tail and flicked her ears.

**Only one here. Down this.**

Scrap was not about to let Grodd beat her to the soft one. She picked up the plastic card in her teeth, like a mouse or a lizard she was putting in the Warm one’s shoes as a Present, and ran down the hallway, beating in to the door.

It did not smell like the soft one. It smelled like Human, and like anger and fear and a little bit like Ginger, a little bit like the nasty Smellbad man who had hit Sco, a little bit like the warm one, but not anything like her human. Scrap hissed.

“Get away from there!” Oh, she knew that voice. That was the Bad Man. He had greyish hair and he was frowning. He said some other things, but Scrap did not care what they were.

 _(You hurt me! You hurt Apricot and her Grodd! You tried to hurt my soft one!)_ Scrap hissed, growling so deep in her throat she could feel her bones shifting to mimic. It was a Good, angry feeling. The Bad man moved forward, pointing his metal thing, the same metal thing like he had pointed at the Soft one’s Tom (the Warm one), like the one his friend had held to the Soft one’s head. Gun, Scrap’s mind supplied. A very bad thing. She could feel Grodd’s fear, and Apricot’s, and the human who was not Soft’s.  He turned slightly to look at Grodd.

Scrap lurched forward with agility that would make all but Nyoom bitter and jealous and sank her claws into the Bad man’s pelt, biting down hard on his neck. He squeaked, but only once, which was Disappointing. After shaking him once or twice for good measure, Scrap dropped her toy. He didn’t taste very good. Grodd picked up  the fallen card, using human-like hands to hold it to the door, which beeped.

Scrap entered carefully, not wanting to scare anyone. She could hear alarms blaring, though, so scared or not, they’d have to go fast.

“What?” a woman’s voice said. Scrap purred as reassuringly as she could as she approached the table where a woman who looked a little like the soft one, with long shiny hair, was stuck. Her claws were a little bloody but it was easy enough to use them to slice through the straps, and the woman sat up. She moved to touch Scrap, hesitated, and them leaned against her anyway. Scrap allowed her to, lowering her head slightly.

“Oh,” the woman hesitated again, then tried to climb on. It took a moment, and scrap was tired, but she knew if it was the Soft one, and some other cat, she’d want them to help.

 **Am Grodd,** Grodd introduced himself as they took off, leaving fewer bodies than scrap would like in their wake. **You safe now. We go to not here.**

( _To Star. Tell, to Star. Safe at Star.)_ Scrap thought as they reached a dead-end hallway.

( _Mousepoop)_ Apricot pawed at the wall.

“Wait,” the human said, looking over her shoulder fearfully. Scrap could hear more humans coming, angry ones. The woman pressed both hands to the wall and waited, then jumped back as it all started to glow and then exploded.

Outside was cold and damp and dark, and they ran until they couldn’t anymore, curling up for shelter in a forested area.

* * *

 

Barry had been the one to find them, thanks in large part to Cisco’s metakitty tracking program. He’d expected to find the kitten-napped Scrap, and brought Caitlin with him.

What they’d found was Scrap as well as Grodd the hopefully less murdery telepathic Gorilla, Apricot, and…

“Oh my god, Bette? Sargent San Souci?” Barry asked, as Caitlin was too busy being groomed by her worried cat to address the last member of the blood-and-mudstained quartet. “You were dead, Eiling shot you.”

“Barry Allen? And—Caitlin? Snow? How are you here?”

“How are you here, are you ok? Wait, stupid question, you don’t look ok, I—“

“I dunno. I remember getting shot, and then…a boat, Eiling’s men fishing me out of the Bay…. And then that place for….”

“Almost a year,” Barry said softly. “I’m sorry, I thought you were dead, or we’d have come for you sooner.”

Bette just nodded sharply. “it’s not your fault. And wishing won’t change what happened.  I got lucky, I guess. Your little –“

“Scrap,” Caitlin supplied, getting to her feet and tucking the kitten into her jacket sleeve.

“Your littke Scrap—or big Scrap, I guess, is the one that found me. And…I knew Eiling had a Gorilla, but I was expecting someone…mean.”

**Apricot say, temper need work. Scrap got to murder. I did not. Not fair.**

Barry and Caitlin looked at the lump in Caitlin’s sleeve.

“What.” Said Barry.

“Scrap?” Caitlin asked, knowing the kitten wouldn’t respond.

Bette shrugged. “I don’t think any more metahumans, or meta-anythings, ever need to worry about Eiling again,” she explained.

“Oh,” Barry said faintly.

Caitlin noticed the scars around Bette’s hands and along her arms. “ Good kitty,” she said firmly. “ Kitty treats for Scrap. Let’s go home.”

Scrap purred.

* * *

 

Harry did prove useful, after all, able to direct the group to a breach that lead from Central City to a preserve for abused Gorillas on earth two. Apricot gave everyone a lick on the ear or cheek in farewell, except for Harry himself, who avoided the clawed strike she had been saving for the Wheelman, and followed Grodd through.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scrap's bodycount is officially in double digits now Bless   
> please love me


	8. chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!

Cisco made sure the Star Labs van was locked and headed for the Jitters door with a basket tucked under one arm and Fuzzwhump balanced on his shoulder. Discovering that Scrap had been kittennapped had cut short his first date with Kendra, but they’d made make up plans that suited everyone far better. Fuzzwhump had been terribly unhappy he’d left her with Iris and Eddie when he’d gone to the movie theater, and Kendra had admitted she didn’t much care for theaters anyway. So, Princess Bride date take two was set for the Jitter’s rooftop.

 

Kendra let him in and led him up. He supposed he could have gotten Barry to drop him off, but that would raise far too many questions. As soon as they reached the roof, cisco set Fuzzwhump down to start unfolding the sheet he’d brought to serve as a screen for the movie. She sniffed the air and wriggled her ears, until a dark blur barreled into her.

“Sheik, no!” Kendra tried to reclaim her own cat, but whatever mock-battle was over quickly. Fuzzwhump sized up the other cat, and then batted at the kitten’s sleek, twitchy tail. Kendra intervened, scooping up the black and orange kitten.

“Well, I’ve met Fuzz. This is Sheik.” she smiled as Cisco extended a hand for the cat to smell. Sheik sniffed, then bit, but gently, licking after a second. Cisco pulled away quickly. 

“Sorry. She gets...yeah.” Kendra sighed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her lately.”

Cisco quirked a smile, thinking of Fuzzwhump’s many murder attempts. “Cats, am I right?”   
“You’re not hurt, are you?”   
“Nope, didn’t break the skin. It’s fine.”   
  
They settled to watch the movie, having dragged one of the couch things upstairs, eating the dinner Kendra had made and feeding bits of it to the two kittens. Kendra watched the movie, wide eyed, and Cisco grinned. It wasn’t often he watched Princess Bride with someone who’d never seen it before. Eventually, the kittens realized that their humans were paying more attention to the move and each other than the plates. Sheik grabbed a chicken leg and scurried off into the shadows, and Fuzzwhump followed. Sco was safe enough here. No one could sneak up on them.

 

As Buttercup shoved the Man in Black down a hill, Kendra’s squeak of surprise was underscored by a man’s soft cursing and a triumphant yowl. Cisco reached for the pause button as Sheik bounded over to Kendra, making a muffled mew. She laid her prize down at Kendra’s feet, triumphant.

 

“Feathers? What on--” She stopped. Cisco lept to his feet, already reaching for his phone and the panic button that would alert Barry. A tall man stepped out of the shadows, hands up in the universal sign of “I’m not here to hurt you I’m unarmed please call off your demon cats.” From his shoulder blades, huge mottled wings sprouted, though they were missing a few feathers. Fuzzwhump hissed.

 

“I’m not here to hurt you, I’m unarmed, please call off the cats,” he said, not looking at Cisco at all. 

“Uh, yeah, no, who are you and why do you have wings?” Kendra demanded.   
“What do you want, and how did you get up here?” Cisco added.

“My name is Carter Hall. Or that’s what it is this time. And, er, I...flew. It’s a very long story. Please. I only want to help you, Shay-ara.”

“Yeah, that’s not her name, so you need to back off.” Cisco stepped forward. 

“Not this time, but it was once. Please allow me to explain.” Carter suddenly paused, looking towards the street. “Somewhere safe. It’s a matter of life and death.”

Cisco looked to Kendra. She hesitated, and then went stiff. “Cisco, we have to get out of here.”

Carter nodded. “He’ll be coming for us, we have to--”

 

The door to the stairwell burst open, and Carter moved with surprising grace, unfurling his only slightly tattered wings with a snap. “ Shay, take your friend, Go!”   
“Go where?” Cisco asked, looking around, fumbling for his phone. There was just the one exit, and there was someone standing there, a man in a long coat, holding a knife that gleamed in the light of the projector. Fuzzwhump yowled, leaping for Cisco’s shoulder and he caught her.

“There’s a fire escape,” Kendra hissed grabbing his hand with her free one, clutching sheik to her jacket, “Come on!”

 

There was a fire escape, just below the lip of the roof.Something rushed past Cisco’s nose as he turned, a dark-bladed knife. He lost his footing as he dodged back, hip colliding with the low wall, sending him tumbling. Jitters wasn’t a skyscraper by any means, but it was tall enough. 

 

Except that he didn’t meet the pavement, not to broken bones or--well, whatever happened between dying and Fuzzwhump doing her metakitten thing. Instead, he felt arms, wiry and strong, wrap around him and the world lurch away. Everything tinted blue for a heartbeat, a wingbeat, a flickering image of Kendra, broad speckled wings spread against the sky---another image of the first man from the roof, Carter, wearing a bronze helmet that curved like a bird’s beak.

 

He yelped, and Kendra, flying above him, yelped, both kittens clinging for dear life. 

“Fly!” Carter shouted, overtaking them and backwinging. “Fly!”   
“Where?” Kendra’s voice was shrill as a raptor’s cry.   
“Star Labs,” Cisco hoped his voice was heard above the wind, but not loud enough Creepy knife dude could hear.

* * *

 

 

“So you’re saying we’re, what, lovers? And that’s why I had  _ wings?  _ I’ve never seen you before in my life!” Kendra paced as Caitlin put stitches in the gash on Carter’s arm, carefully staying out of the conversation.

 

“Not this life, I know, that’s the point,” Carter said, wincing. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but you saw him, Savage. He just tried to kill us, doesn’t that prove my story?”   
  


“That might not,” Iris said, “But Goldie does.” She looked over at Kendra. “ Goldie’s a meta. If someone lies around her, she meows a certain way. I think Hawkdude’s telling the truth.”

“My name is not Hawkdude” Carter grumbled. “Look, believe me or not, now that you’ve gotten your wings, the memories will come, and we don’t have much time. He found us--he’s found us over and over. We have to run.”

“Maybe not,” Cisco said, with a pang. He  _ liked  _ Kendra, he didn’t want her to leave now, especially not if there was an immortal mass murderer after her. “We could help you.”

“He’s killed us 206 times,” Kendra repeated the number Carter had told them. “How can we--”

“You didn’t have the Flash before,” Cisco said. “Or Plastique, or Cobalt. Or--we have friends. We can call them. And then the cats…”

Carter glanced around. There were an awful lot of cats. While he and Shayara had been devoted most highly to Horus, that did not mean they had no respect for Bastet and her children. One of the cats, a smudgy black and white cat, leaned against his side, sniffing at his back as if looking for the wings that had melted away.  He looked at Kendra. “I follow your lead, Shayara. If you believe these people can help us--I am sick of running.”

Kendra closed her eyes. “We fight, then.”

“I’ll call Eddie,” Iris set Goldie on the floor.

“I’ll go get the Green Arrow and the Canaries,” Barry zipped off.

 

Cisco grinned, and went to the board. “Ok, so...everything you guys know about that knife guy--”   
“Vandal Savage,” Kendra corrected.   
“Yeah, him. Besides that he’s Immortal and likes knives.”

“Unfortunate, but true,” Carter confirmed. “He’s 4000 years old, not like us. We live and die. We lose a lot of that muscle memory. Not all of it, usually, I think, but he just..gets stronger.  An expert in weaponry--mostly those knives but that’s all he really needs. Oh, and he gets our life energy when he kills us. He’s powerful with magic.”   
Cisco threw up his hands. “Magic. Of course. Of course it’s magic.”   
“Cisco, you have a cat that can raise people from the dead,” Caitlin said gently. “I’m pretty sure we left the realms of plausible science a long time ago.”

“My cat just steals butter knives,” Kendra said, wonderingly. “So how do we fight magic?”   
“We could blow him up,” a voice offered from the doorway. Bette had been on bedrest for a week following her rescue/escape from Eiling, and technically was still supposed to be resting, but desperate times called for measures that included blowing things up.   
Carter pointed at her. “I like that plan.”    
She gave a small smile, and continued. “It would be good to know how he’s managed to kill you before. If he has patterns, we can exploit that. If not, the better we know the enemy, the better we can defend ourselves, and you.”    
Carters face went dark. “Not much pattern wise. Sometimes we’re not even together.”

Kendra frowned. “I know I should know things, but…” She shook her head.   
“They’ll come,” Carter assured her. “It takes time.”   
“Which is something we don’t have much of,” Caitlin said, checking her medical supplies. She had a feeling they were going to be used, a lot.   
“How much time  _ do _ we have?” Kendra asked softly.    
“Maybe a couple of days. Maybe not.”   
“Uh...yeah,” Cisco said from the monitors. “I’m gonna go with the ‘not’.”

“We’ve got company,” Barry said, wooshing in with Oliver, and vanishing again. Apparently he’d been moving everyone in stages because Thea, Dig, and the Canaries were right behind. Dig looked for a place to throw up. Laurel and Thea bent to offer ear scritches to Fuzzwhump and the other kitties, who crowded around to smell the humans.

“Eddie’s coming. Dad’s distracting Patty. Oh, hi.  You guys got here fast. Did you bring Spike?” Iris asked, greeting them   
“Uh, no.” Oliver looked around. “ Barry, you said there was--”   
“An immortal murderer trying to kill two hawk...demigods? People blessed by the gods? Wasn’t exactly clear on that anyway, yes.”

“Also he’s outside the gate,” Cisco pointed at the monitor. “Plans?”

“Have any of you seen Home Alone?” Thea asked.

“Not sure that will work against a dude with magic,” Cisco said, “But gold star for the movie reference.”

Thea beamed. 

“He’s coming,” Sara pointed at the screen, which now showed an empty gate and a suspicious lack of Vandal Savage.   
“You two,” Oliver said to Carter and Kendra, “Unless you know how to fight, stay back. Barry, first sign this is going south, get them out of here. Everyone else, get ready.”

 

Thea’s arrow hit first, and Savage looked down at it and laughed, plucking it from his shoulder like it was a child’s suction cup toy. 

“Hand over Prince Khufu and my Shayara and I promise your deaths will be painless,” he offered.

“How about no?” Cisco shot back, verbally. Thea and Oliver shot back much more literally, but Savage seemed to just step aside, out of the way. The arrows clattered against the curving cement walls behind him.   
“I’ll give you until tomorrow. Otherwise I will destroy your entire city.” His dark eyes slid to Oliver, green hood up and mask in place. “Both your cities.”

“Hard pass on that,” Barry snapped.    
Savage flung out an arm, sending a wave of daggers towards the line of heroes, but Barry ran for them, plucking them from the air in front of Oliver, Thea, Cisco, Sara, Bette, straining to reach for the one aimed at Laurel’s chest before it hit. 

 

Nyoom got there first, springing off his head and batting the at the hilt so it bit into the floor instead of flesh.

“Give up,” Sara challenged, grabbing the knife, feeling the weight of it in her hand. It felt wrong, but it also fit, and her fingers found the grip she had trained on, ready to throw.

“I will have my Shayara,” Savage drew back his lips in a snarl. 

“I was never yours,” Kendra answered.

“And I will see every one of you in ashes.” seemingly from nowhere, he produced the top bauble of a staff, a hawks head carved in gold and set with stones. 

“Big words from someone out numbered two dozen to one.” Kendra spat, recognizing the staff. She had seen it before, or one like it. The Hawk. Horus. 

“There are not so many of you,” he answered, but there was confusion in his voice.

Cisco caught on, looking around the room. There was Nyoom, Scrap, Schrodinger, Goldie--Fuzzwhump and Sheik were even closer at hand. Georgia and Frieda were balanced oh-so-precariously at the top of a door and file cabinet, and Shmendrick was even closer, lurking behind the intruder in the hallway.    
“Wanna bet?” Cisco said, and he grabbed something off his desk, hitting the button on the device.   
  


Savage looked down at the glowing red dot on his chest and laughed.

The kittens attacked en masse, and Bette dashed forward, seizing the hawk-head with stones that started to glow blue from Savages hand. The glow instantly turned purple, and she shoved it back at Savage..

“Fall back!” she yelled. Only Moose disobeyed, standing in front of everyone, lashing his tail and focusing. Schmendrick leaned against him. A golden bubble appeared, far bigger than any of his previous force fields, large enough to shield  the whole group, but instead, it appeared around Savage.

The staff head exploded, and so did the immortal, leaving only ashy dust inside the fading bubble.

 

For a moment, there was silence. Sheik chewed on the handle of one of the abandoned knives. Moose lifted a leg to pee on the ashes until Caitlin brandished the spray bottle. Diggle opened his mouth, closed it, and then shook his head. “Is anyone gonna care if I pretend that this has all been a very, very strange dream?”

Oliver clapped him on the shoulder. Sara elbowed him with a smile and a shake of her head. 

 “ Ok, good. Dream it was,” he absently gave Scrap a head scritch.

“Sooo….now what?” Thea asked. “Ice cream? I could go for some ice cream.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked it!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long. I felt bad so instead of splitting this into two chapters...it's a long one!

“Barry? Eddie? Can I talk to you guys?”

Barry looked up from the evidence report he was working on for one of Eddie’s more mundane cases. Contrary to popular belief, just because he was part of the Metahuman crime taskforce didn’t mean that was all he did. Eddie was teasing Nyoom and Bear with the reflection from his badge, bouncing the December sunlight across the floor. Iris stood in the doorway, clutching a folder.

“Of course,” Barry waved her in. Bear went to nuzzle her ankles.

“You remember—Francine?” Iris said, a little tightly. Eddie and Barry both winced.  Iris’s mother had returned, and then left again, after telling Joe and Iris she was dying.

“Did something happen?” Eddie asked carefully.

“She—lied. Not about being sick. But, I was looking into her and…she has a son. He was born eight months after she left. I wasn’t sure, but Goldie did her thing, and…” Barry got her a chair, and Iris sat heavily. “I have a brother.”

The awkward silence that followed was interrupted by Nyoom leaping up onto Barry’s computer, making it beep unhappily, and Eddie’s confused but well meaning “Congratulations?”

Iris had to laugh, shaking her head. “I don’t know what to do. It would break Dad’s heart to know that he has a son he never got the chance to raise, but we all know how badly keeping secrets has gone for this family.”

Barry nodded, wincing a little.

“In my defense,” Eddie started, but stopped, shaking his head. “We should tell Joe.”

“We?” Iris asked, a little hopefully.

“If you want us to tell him with you,” Barry said, “then yes, we.”

Iris sighed in relief, giving Bear ear scritches. “Thanks, guys. You’re the best. Both of you.”

“We should probably have the cats there,” Eddie said. “They make it a lot easier to take world changing news.”

They laughed, a little, and Barry went to shoo Nyoom off his keyboard, with some difficulty.

* * *

 

Joe did that the news a better than expected, which Eddie and Barry accredited to Sue and her almost hypnotic purring. Still, it was apparent to all three of them, and probably the cats as well, that he was devastated. It had helped that they had not kept it a secret for very long. Joe might have kept more than his fair share of secrets, from co-workers, family, and friends, but that had only made him hate being lied to all the more.

“What do you want to do?” Iris asked, rubbing Goldie’s ears. “I’d like to reach out, but—“  
“No, that’s a…a good idea.” Joe nodded. A son. He had called Barry the son he never had for years, for a decade and a half. But he had a son he’d never met. And if Francine was right about her illness, if the doctors were right…he’d be alone, soon.  They owed him—Wallace—that much. “I need some time. Tomorrow, or…after. Not tonight.”

Iris nodded, taking Eddie’s hand, and then Barry’s giving them each a squeeze. “There’s still…time,” she said.

Outside, it started to thunder. Barry glanced out the window, grimacing. The lighting flared, and there was no yellow figure lurking on the adjacent rooftop. This time last year, things had been so different. This time the year before…

Barry had always hated the early winter months —not for the typical anger at holidays without family that a thousand hallmark movies had been built on, but there was something about all the days leading up to and following those few bright moments that felt flat, empty.  At least now, he wasn’t the only one to feel that way, though it was a petty kind of relief. December wasn’t just a month associated with his trauma. The Accelerator exploding, and all that had entailed, even if some of it had been mended, left a mark on everyone in their ragged little family who could comprehend what December was. Nyoom seemed to realize, rubbing against his slacks, her long fur flickering a little with static.

He dropped Iris’s hand so he could bend and pick up the cat, and she graciously allowed him to cuddle her before moving to his shoulders. Iris hesitated, then reached for his hand again.

“I’ll see you kids later,” Joe stood, using a hand to prevent Sue from falling. The blind cat protested the movement, purring even harder, digging her claws into Joe’s jacket and tie. He groaned, scooping her closer so she felt more secure. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something more, but closed it again.

“It’ll be ok, Iris,” Barry said. “I’m sure things’ll work out.”

“You really think so?” she asked.

“We’re all still here,” Eddie pointed out, giving Goldie a quick pet. “That has to count for something.”

“Something,” Iris sighed.

“Anyone wanna grab some ice cream?” Barry asked, trying to lighten the creeping dark mood.

“It’s the middle of December and raining,” Eddie pointed out, but it was a lost cause.

“There’s no snow, and that means ice cream weather. I want mint chocolate chip.” Iris tugged them both toward the door.

* * *

 

Iris kicked her shoes off, sending Bear running for them, settling on the couch to check her email before going to bed. Bear sat on the shoe, chewing gently, but rather than scold, she looked up. “Eddie?”

“Yeah?” he asked from the kitchen, putting away the take-home container of ice cream they’d bought.

“Call Barry. And my Dad. They need to see this, now,” she said, jabbing a finger at the screen. Eddie took the laptop, frowning.

**West.**

**Tell your zippy boyfriend I have information for him about tonight’s breakout at IH.  Tomorrow morning, the Denny’s parking lot. 7:16. No cops. Treaty’s still in effect.**

**CC.**

“Treaty? CC—that’s not—“

“Captain Cold.” Iris said. “Has to be. I’m betting the treaty’s the only reason he didn’t break into dad’s living room.”

“Treaty?” Eddie repeated.

“He doesn’t come near any of us and we don’t let Scrap maul him to death.”

“That sounds fair,” Eddie pulled out his phone and hit the number for Barry’s speed dial.

* * *

 

Barry got to the Denny’s ahead of schedule, because cheap pancakes were nothing to sneeze at and whatever news Snart had, Barry was pretty sure he’d want to be ready for. That meant calories. Nyoom had not been allowed in, and was sulking on the roof, or at least she had been. At 7:16 on the dot, Barry heart a loud clatter from overhead and a dull thud. Looking out the window, he saw that Nyoom had launched herself at not-full-speed-but-close off the roof and landed on Leonard Snart’s chest.

“Call off your furball,” Snart growled standing up. Barry wasn’t terribly worried, he’d been wearing the heavy parka with the thick hood up.

“Nyoom,” Barry said, a touch of warning in his voice. Nyoom hissed a bit, fur still fluffed up. “Ok, you said you had information. I assume about how you got Mardon to break you out?”

“I didn’t get him to. He repaid a debt. Didn’t ask. Only he seems to think I owe him now. Wants me and that lunatic, Jesse, to help him kill you. Guess he decided he can’t get revenge on Detective West with you running around. Anyway, you saved my sister, this makes us square. See ya.”

“No,” Barry bit his lip, honesty driving him to admit it. “It doesn’t. Lisa gave us information about other escaped metas.”

“And here I thought you had to be smart to get two masters degrees by 25. Wouldn’t know myself. She gave you information for your helping me.  Now I’m repaying _her_ debt. Be seeing you around, I’m sure.”

“Yeah,” Barry echoed. Nyoom hissed again, a grumbling note. ( _Nart is Lucky Scrap not here, lucky my Nyoomman says no biting, or---)_

As Snart reached the curb, a van pulled up, and he got in. Barry knew he could have chased it down, but the treaty was still in place. Barry wasn’t about to let Snart have the moral high ground by abiding by it while he ignored their set rules. Instead, he pulled out his phone.

“Joe? Good news and Bad news.”

* * *

 

The minute Eddie walked into the precinct, he knew Patty must have already heard the news. She was on her feet, gate quickening almost exponentially as she hurried from her desk to where he stood.

“Spivot,” he nodded. “I take it you—“

“Mark Mardon broke two prisoners out of Iron Heights last night, Leonard Snart and—“

“James Jesse, yes, I’m aware.” Eddie shook his head. “You’re close to this one.”

“Not too close,” Patty shot back. “I need this.”

Eddie looked to Joe, who shook his head, as if to say ‘your task force, your headache.’

“Fine,” he sighed. “But you do not go off on your own. You call for backup. You wait for backup. Or, better yet, you just stick with us in the first place. We got some intel earlier, Snart’s not a priority, he ditched Mardon. And we know they’re after the Flash.”

“That’s new,” Patty muttered.

“It makes sense,” Joe said, over his cup of coffee. “Flash and his team are a pretty big obstacle. They want to destroy the city…and me. They know they have to take out the Flash first. So. Leads for where to start?”

“Give me half an hour,” Patty promised.

* * *

 

“Cisco, what did you do?” Caitlin asked, looking around.

“Tell me it’s not accurate, though,” Cisco responded, adjusting the special “Star Labs Security” shirt he’d made on Schmendrick. Several other cats were already dressed. Faulkner peered closely at the lettering on one of the other cats, then delicately fell off his chair and leaned into Cisco’s leg, blinking up at him.

“You want one too? Ok.” Cisco laughed, and Caitlin sighed.

“Is this going on the internet?”

“Yup,” Cisco popped the ‘p’ and finished dressing up the security team. “Want me to figure out how to make one that’ll grow for Scrap?”

“No, but if you can figure out a collar…I’m not really worried about her getting lost, I guess. Wait, why didn’t you put one on Fuzzwhump?”

“I tried. She was not going for it, were you, Fluffbutt?”

Fuzzwhump purred.

“So, Ronnie’s coming back soon, right?” Cisco asked.

“Yeah,” Caitlin twisted the ring on her finger. “The holidays. He said Jax is doing really well, with the training. They’ve got some new trick they’re working on. Any day now, they’ll be back. For good, maybe, since no one’s chasing them anymore.” Caitlin gave Scrap, cuddled in her pocket, a pet. “Thanks to my good kitty.”

“It’ll be good to have them back,” Cisco nodded. “We need more engineers around here.” He glanced up at the screen that showed the new Harrison Wells in his cell, and amended his statement. “We need more engineers who aren’t total dicks around here.”

“Mm-hmm,” Caitlin agreed, going back to her inventory. “So are you inviting anyone to Joe’s party?”

Cisco tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear. “I’ve been keeping up with Laurel. You know, Lance. Just to make sure everything’s good with Sara and the team and her Canary cry and all. She’s going to be in town visiting her mom, so…”

Caitlin grinned. “Someone’s got a cru-u-ush.”

Cisco gave her a flat look. “I could have sworn you graduated seventh-grade, but that must have been an alternate timeline.”

“I’m glad for you,” Caitlin said, her grin not lessening. “She’s much nicer than Lisa.”

“Water’s wet,” Cisco agreed, startling several of the cats.

* * *

 

Barry paced the cortex as the team examined Trickster’s latest video message, trying to find some clue as to where he and Mardon where holed up. Unfortunately, Mardon seemed to have learned from past mistakes, and wasn’t using his powers, making tracking difficult. Cisco had the satellites scanning as he toyed with a prototype weapon that might prevent Mardon’s powers.

“We sure could use Felicity’s help with this,” Joe sighed.

“She’s got her own stuff to deal with,” Cisco shook his head. “Laurel said the situation in Star is…complicated.”

“Let me help you,” Harry called over the coms.

“Can you be civil?” Caitlin asked.

“Listen, Ms. Snow, I am the foremost expert of—“

“And that’s a no,” Iris hit the mute button.

“We might need his help,” Barry winced. “I get the feeling we don’t have much time.”

Joe’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it. “Barry, there’s a warehouse. Patty found a lead, but Eddie’s worried. Might be a trap.”

Barry took off.

“Good thing she told Eddie about it,” Iris said, managing to stroke Nyoom before the cat followed Barry’s lead.

“She didn’t. Eddie followed her.”

* * *

 

“Well that didn’t go well,” Patty grumbled, brushing ash off her shoulder. “Thanks for the save, Flash.”

“Don’t thank me,” Barry said from behind the cowl. “Detective Thawne’s the only reason I knew where to look.”

Patty had the sense to look mildly ashamed, and reached down to pet Nyoom. “You look familiar, kitty.”

Barry was suddenly grateful for the weekend improve classes that he and the others had started attending semi-regularly. “She belongs to a cop, I think. Or someone who works at CCPD. She just follows me around, and lucky for you she did.”

“Look, I know you think I should have called it in, should have waited for back up, but—you don’t understand. Mark Mardon killed my father, and I can’t let him get away.  You don’t know what it’s like, knowing he’s out there.”

“Actually,” Barry started, but Eddie cut him off.

“Spivot, this is exactly why we told you to report to us. Me. You could have gotten yourself killed, and for what? Come on. We’ve gotta make a report now about why a warehouse we didn’t have a warrant for is blown up.”

“I had reasonable suspicion,” Patty glowered.

“Anything you had got blown up in there. This isn’t just Mardon we’re fighting. Remember that.” Eddie looked actually angry, his blue eyes brighter.  Patty grumbled, but followed him. Barry sifted through the wreckage, hoping to find further hints, but there was nothing to find.  Of course Mardon and Jesse would be smart enough to cover any tracks. And this time, Barry didn’t have future knowledge to clue him in to whereabouts. They’d have to wait until the criminals made their move.

* * *

 

“So, um, Good news and also Good news that is kinda bad news at the same time.” Cisco told Barry. “I finished the Wizard’s—“

“Wand,” Barry finished. “Thank goodness”

“Way to steal my thunder,” Cisco said. “Pun fully intended. Yes, it’s finished. And We found Mardon.”

“Is that the bad news?” Joe asked.

“No, the bad news is that I found Jesse in some security feeds, leaving the mall. He was dressed like Santa, and I’m guessing not to wish people a happy holidays. I’m trying to find out what he was up to but you should just. Go deal with Mardon. Sooner the bet—“ Barry took off. “--ter.”

“I’m never going to get used to that,” Joe sighed.

 

Barry found Mardon in the place Cisco had described, standing on a roof top.

“Oh good, you’re here,” Mardon grinned. “Maybe you can help me.”

“Help you back to your cell with your cat, yeah, we can help you with that.” Barry agreed.

“No, no,” Mark shook his head, moving closer to the edge. Barry was pretty sure he could catch him if he slipped, but the image of Danton Black crumpled on the ground after just such a fall was cause enough to worry. “No, you can help me decide if I should kill everyone down there with a hail storm or acid rain. Acid rain’s a little trickier, but the pay-off…”

Nyoom growled, hackles up.

“Touch choice, how about neither.” Barry held up the wand, but Mardon dropped like a greased crowbar. Barry raced forward only to see the metahuman inexplicably flying. He moved his hand off the button—if he stopped Mardon’s powers, he’d fall to his death.

“Barry? Why didn’t you stop him?” Caitlin asked, worried.

“He’s flying,” Barry said, preparing to follow.

“He can do that?” Iris groaned. Barry ignored the science Cisco explained over the coms, focusing on where Mardon was going, not how he was getting there.

Mardon crash-landed in the middle of the open plaza, Barry skidding to a stop with the usual trail of yellow lightning. Nyoom had beat them both, no doubt judging Mardon’s angles the same way she would a fleeing mouse. Barry was half tempted to call her a show-off. People scattered, and Barry was glad. Again he held up the wand.

“You didn’t think we’d let you hurt anyone, did you?” he demanded.

“Nah,” Mardon grinned, feral enough that Barry felt the urge to take a step back. “But you’re gonna let me hurt you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Barry had a bad feeling in his gut.

“Yeah,” James Jesse, still in his Santa costume, sat beneath the huge decorative Christmas tree, and stood, holding a wrapped box.

“Why’s that?” Barry asked, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. In his ear, he heard Eddie call into the coms he was on his way, to stall.

“Because if you don’t I set this off,” Jesse explained. “And if it goes off, so do all the other bombs. A real war on Christmas, eh?”

“Right now, there are about a hundred of these in the city.” Mardon held up a detonator. “All under Christmas trees, waiting. No way for you to get to all of them even if we could tell you where they are.”

Barry felt sick. “Don’t. Don’t do this. Please.”

“Me? Kill a bunch of kids, their folks, for trying to put a toy under the tree, you should know me a little better than that. I’m hurt.” Mardon said. “ James, him maybe, but there’s not so much fun in it if no one’s watching.”

 “Suburbs at night,” Jesse shook his head. “That’s no kind of party.”

“Which is why it’s up to you” Mardon grinned. “I’m happy just to take your life, for now. Still need my revenge on detective West, but what’s three lives for a few hundred? What’s it gonna be, hero?”

Nyoom took the moment to lash out, claws raised. A bolt of lightning darted from Mardon’s fingers, sending her spawling with a pained cry. She got to her feet, only a little worse for wear, her fur puffed up with static. Over the coms, Barry could hear the team trying to work out what do do, but there was no time. 

He extended his hand, letting Mardon take the wand.

“If I see even a flicker of electricity, any kind of fighting back,” Mardon took the wand and tucked the detonator into a pocket, “coffin-makers are gonna have a good holiday.”

Barry steeled himself. Stall until the team had a plan. He hoped they hurried up.

Mardon’s free hand filled with ice.

* * *

 

Caitlin hoped her stern look made it clear to Harry that he better just help them, that he better not make her regret letting him out of the shut up box. Already, though, he was belittling Cisco, and proposing sending one of the bombs into a breach.

“Risky,” Cisco countered. “We have to find one and hope that all the bombs are free of the houses before they start to blow up.  But…if we could get the frequency of the bombs… they’re all linked…”

“We could shut them down remotely,” Harry nodded.

“Well, do it,” Iris said as Barry’s vitals spiked again. She gripped the control panel, alternating between reassuring Barry and checking Eddie’s location. He was nearly there. His presence might be enough of a distraction.

“On it,” Cisco shoved Moose off his chair, typing rapidly. Moose gave a pitiful merp of surprise, then started washing his paws.

“That’s not how you do that,” Harry said, joining him.   
“it’s how I do it,” Cisco snapped, isolating frequencies that the tech in Barry’s suit could pick up. Just because Hartley had noped on out of the city months ago didn’t mean he might not return.

“Just find a way to shut the bombs down, I don’t care who does it right, shut up and get it done,” Iris snapped.

“It’s—“ Cisco started.

“I did it,” Harry interrupted. “Frequency’s shut down.”

Iris looked at Cisco, who nodded, firmly.

* * *

 

“What’s the matter, Flash? Don’t tell me you’re bored already.” Mardon shook his head mockingly. “Can’t handle it? Pathetic.”

Barry groaned, his vision swimming. He could hear Iris in his ears, encouraging him. He felt like he’d been kicked in the ribs-- by a train.

“I want a turn,” Jesse whined.

Mardon shrugged. “He’s all yours.”

“Barry,” Iris said, urgent. “Barry, Eddie’s nearly there, hold on, hold—the bombs are gone. Cisco and Harry disabled them, run!”

Barry did not run, but as soon as Jesse got close, he lunged. Nyoom joined him, weaving through Mardon’s feet, slower than usual but finally recovered. She tripped him, bringing him down hard as Barry bound Jesse to a nearby pole with the first thing he could find: a string of lights. Eddie was close, he could hear a car pulling up, the siren cutting out.

“Eddie, thank—“ he started, only for yet another unwelcome jolt of electricity to rush through him. He felt his speed cut off as he looked down at the gleaming chrome boot, and then Patty, putting aside the rest of the anti-meta weapon.

“Wait,” he said, watching her draw her gun. “What are you doing? He can’t hurt anyone anymore, put the gun down.”

“No,” she said, voice shaking. Her hands were steady. “This is for my father. I’m going to make sure this ends tonight.” She looked at Nyoom. “Move, kitty.”

Nyoom did not like the loud man. Georgia did a little bit, but Nyoom did not. Still, she did not like the thing that Patspiv held more. She did not move. Didn’t the silly human know that cats never took orders?

“Patty, no,” Barry tugged at the heavy strands that anchored the boot to the ground. They wouldn’t budge. “Don’t do this. Mardon will get what he deserves.”

“He deserves to die,” she spat back. “He killed my father for a couple hundred dollars. I don’t expect you to understand. You’re a meta. You have powers to protect yourself. Your family. This is _all_ I have.  The only way I can protect people. The only way I can get justice, and you will never understand that.”

“I do. I do understand,” Barry said. _Stall,_ Eddie would fix this, unless she tried to shoot him, too, and Barry didn’t want to think about that. “My mother was murdered, too. By a meta. I wanted to kill him, I understand, I do. But you do this, you throw away your life. Everything your dad would have wanted for you. Mardon will go to prison, for the rest of his life.  But killing him, that’s not justice. That’s revenge. You’ll go to prison, you know that. Don’t let Mardon take anything else from you. Please.”

Patty hesitated, looking down at Mardon, sneering up at her.  She didn’t dare take a hand off the gun to wipe at her eyes.

Even in the speedster-slowed perception of time, the moment seemed to last forever. Barry watched as Patty lowered the gun.

“Mark Mardon, you’re under arrest,” she recited, reaching for her handcuffs.

“Bar—Flash,” Barry turned to see Eddie, grabbing the rest of the Boot and hitting the shutdown. Barry staggered as it released with another burst of electricity. “Are you ok? What ha—Spivot.” His voice went hard.

“We got Mardon,” she said, head held high.

“James Jesse’s over there,” Barry pointed. Jesse gave them a thumbs up.  Nyoom bounded, limping slightly, toward Eddie, and gave a pitiful Miaow. He knelt, reaching out a hand to her. A little of the blue fire that gathered in his hand sank through her fur where it had been singed by Mardon’s lightning, and she licked his hand in return, hissed at Patty, and went to check on her human, nosing Barry all over. He managed a smile.

“You and I need to have a serious talk,” Eddie told Patty. “Flash, you gonna be alright returning Jesse to his cell while I book Mardon?”

“Right as rain,” Barry nodded, wincing a little. “Though if you could…”

Eddie nodded, clasping a hand on Barry’s shoulder. The ache in Barry’s ribs eased. They’d have healed on their own in an hour or three, but the instant relief was much better.

* * *

 

“Nyoom Fluffwhiskers Allen if you don’t get down from there right now,” Barry threatened. Nyoom remained perched in the upper branches of the Christmas tree.

“Just leave her, Bar,” Eddie shook his head, sipping from his mug of eggnog.

“She’s not hurting anything,” Iris agreed. They’d only used non-breakable ornaments this year.

Across from the couch where she and Eddie sat, with room for Barry, Caitlin and Ronnie cuddled in an over-large chair. Martin and Clarissa were busy in the kitchen with Joe, apparently commandeering the stove, to everyone’s delight. Ronnie and Jax both admitted that Martin was a pretty good cook, which had turned into a debate about who was the best. Joe apparently wanted to prove his title.  Cisco had a place by the fire, Laurel sitting beside him as they let Fuzzwhump steal the best bits of dinner from their plates. More of the cats—no longer really kittens—scampered through the bits of wrapping paper. Moose had fallen asleep on top of Jax’s coat, and was Snoring. Lucy continued to pop from doorway to doorway, and at least once into a closet, towing one of Barry’s shoes with her after that trip.

A knock sounded at the door. Iris frowned, doing a silent headcount. They’d left Harry out of his cell for his help  (and because where was he going to go) but.. who could it be? Certainly not patty. Joe came up behind her as she opened the door.

She recognized the young man standing on the porch from the picture she’d seen in her research.

“Hi,” he said, awkwardly. “Um. I’m Wally. I'm Francine's son. I just..I thought… but this is a bad time. I’m sorry, you’ve got company…”

Joe stopped him from leaving, pulling the door wider. “I’m Joe,” he said, just as awkward. “Please come in. It’s—not company. It’s family.”

Iris smiled, shaking his hand and tugging him inside.

Wally looked around at the crowd, doubting his own courage, but felt something warm at his ankles. He looked down. “Uh..”

“Don’t mind Moose.” Iris said. “All the cats are friendly. And most are just visiting, they don’t live here, do you want something to eat?”

Wally relaxed a little. “That’d be great,” he said, edging into the living room.

He tripped over the eager cat, but someone broke his fall.

“Sorry,” he apologized as he regained his footing.

“Don’t worry about it. Name’s Jefferson, but you can call me Jax.”   
  
“Oh, uh.” Wally blinked, taking the offered hand to shake. “Wallace, but—Wally’s good.”

Moose purred, looping around both sets of ankles.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you like it, please comment.

**Author's Note:**

> Already canon's going of the rails. don't worry still letting Henry out of prison. The kittens will do more next chapter this was just mostly setting up.


End file.
